Expect The Unexpected
by DylanF99
Summary: The Fates and Death decide to Revert the mistakes they made. They even the playing field by returning both Harry and Hermoine to before Hogwarts, so that they may organise and plan for the war they know will rear its ugly head. Harry wakes up to find all three Hallows on his person and a note saying his only true friend was also returned to the past.(Independent Harry and Hermione)
1. Battle of Hogwarts (Revised and longer)

**Important: I'm not sure how long this is going to go on for. Im planning a very long story with years 1-7. I am reuploading chapters due to the world length being too short and a pain to read. Also as this was my first time writing anything over 10 pages double spaced, you will see my writing improve as it goes along.**

Battle of Hogwarts: Everything up to this point happened as canon did. Neville is just standing up to the Death Eaters.

In the courtyard of Hogwarts, Harry Potter had just woken up after surviving his second killing curse. The-Boy-Who Lived-Twice was watching as his good friend Neville Longbottom mustered up all his courage to speak, until he saw Ron begin to move. Harry barely unconscious, did not comprehend his best friend in life's decisions. He watched as Ron walked towards Voldemort. Embraced Him. Stood by his side. Suddenly Rons choice jolted Neville into action and Harry Watched as Neville began to shout.

"You of all people, Ron. I EXPECTED MORE FROM SOMEONE I ONCE CALLED A BROTHER! YOU COWARD RON!" screamed Neville as he began to raise his wand. "No Wait" released Harry as he rolled out of Hagrid's arms. Both sides gasped as they watched an enraged Boy-Who-Lived raise his wand and fire a reducto so powerful that there was no evidence Ron had been standing where he was. "He is mine" finished Harry.

Suddenly the Death Eaters began sending killing curses across the courtyard, connecting with the people Harry cares about most. He watched as everyone he knew was felled in one quick barrage.

Knowing there was nothing he could do, he decided to go to the only place he knew nobody, except Voldemort could find him. He headed to the Chamber of Secrets, where he would wait to engage Voldemort, knowing that all the Horcruxes had been destroyed as he had watched Neville decapitate Nangini with an odd looking weapon, that Harry had only caught a glimpse of. Poor Neville he thought to himself, he had died a heroes death.

"Open'' Harry hissed in parseltongue, as the large circular ornately decorated door began to slide open. Harry was almost paralysed by what he saw awaiting him. The large rotting body of the basilisk lay in the middle of the chamber. To Harry's eyes this did not even come close to the center of attention. He looked as the only girl he truly loved lay dying on the chamber floor. Harry ran over to her, tears rolling down his face.

"Please! No!"

"No"

"Why you Hermione"

"How?"

He gasped as he realised what felled his love. The fang of a Basilisk was jutting from her beautifully pale neck. It had not clicked to him how it occurred. Ron had stabbed Hermione, knowing that Ron loved her Harry did not understand why it had to be done.

Ron's perspective. 'I just can't see myself living knowing she was tortured to death'' he thought to himself. Ron knew what he believed should be done. "I'll do it he thought to himself. Ill kill her in order to save her suffering. Yes this was the humane thing to do. I might even be able to switch sides now that Harry is dead." He suddenly struck Hermione with the basilisk fang that was in his hand. Knowing her death would not be pleasant to watch, he made to leave the Chamber. Leaving behind his darkest deed committed.

Harry glanced down at her pale face for what felt like weeks. Not moving. Not thinking. Only existing.

He didn't want to live anymore. He was going to plunge the basilisk fang that felled his sweet Hermione into himself, but first he wanted to wait and watch her face lay their peacefully.

The Chamber doors began to open, agonisingly slow, filling the vast chamber with unnatural screeching noises. He watched as Voldemort became visible standing next to Bellatrix, Lucius Malfoy, and his son Draco.

"Harry Potter? Oh what a surprise finding you here with the dead mudblood. Personally I had expected you to already have taken your own life. Oh, a basilisk fang in hand, I must have interrupted it. Good thing, as I have come here to kill you myself."

"AVADA KEDAVRA" Voldemort screamed. The echoes of the curse rang throughout the Chamber as it glowed green in the shadow of the curse. "Avada Kedavra" he said twice more, this time ensuring himself that the boy who lived was dead. Voldemort and his Death Eaters wordlessly left the Chamber of Secrets.

"Ah yes, so much hurt this one has went through, I believe he deserves another chance." whispered Death to the Fates.

"Our oldest friend, we have already shown you all outcomes, unless you yourself want to interfere with the matters of men once more." said the eldest Fate.

"I owe it to the descendant of the Peverells, the wand I had provided to his ancestor is the reason for his downfall. The greatest light wizard since our friend Merlin. Yes. I do believe I will intervene. Give him the advantages he needs."

"What about his love, the girl, should she also be returned with his memories?"

"Yes I would not want for him to share this burden alone."

"If that is your choice, I believe we can make the playing field even more sided to the descendant " chorused the Fates.

"Do it" said Death "but do not tell me what you do".

The three Fates snickered as they began to unweave the knitting that is life. The last thought before they implemented their idea is that time will now be a lot more interesting.

* * *

July 31st. Birds chirping contently along the trees in Privet Drive, unbeknownst to them a miracle of life just happened. Harry Potter, The-boy-who-will-live-thrice, was just propelled back in time. Harry didn't even have a say in the matter, as he and his beloved were thrown back in time to conquer Evil yet again.

Opening his eyes, Harry did not expect or believe what he saw in front of him. He was dead, and woke up in the cupboard under the stairs. This must be hell , he thought. Looking around he noticed that he was wearing the same dirty rags he used to wear when he truly lived there.

Harry ran his hands along the pockets and was surprised to touch what felt like an extremely full pocket. He emptied the contents of his pockets onto the bed, astounded by what was in front of him. He gazed at the items that lay on his bed. A wand, cloak, stone, and note with oddly shaped cursive letters.

First Harry grabbed the note and silently held the piece of parchment in front of him. He read the note

Hello Mr. Potter, descendant of my long time friends,

I am leaving this note to give a brief explanation of why you are here. Today is your 10th birthday, you are currently in times passed. I have given you another chance at life, in order to fulfill the debts I owe your ancestors, you have another chance at righting the wrongs you have endured.

I have returned the 4 most important aspects to your survival. Three are in your possession; The Elder Wand, The True Cloak of Invisibility, and The Resurrection Stone. The 4th is the most important, and she has just woken up with a note like yours. I expect you to be able to find your good friend Hermione.

I also believe it is important for you to activate your lordship, this will emancipate you from that pig of a family, allow you to receive your inheritance and ancestral possessions. As you will retain your magic, you will not be identified as a minor by the ministry. Allowing you to perform magic and apparate without worry. I would also suggest you spend every waking minute learning occlumency before attending Hogwarts or looking people in their eyes.

I wish you well,

Your friend.

Before another second passed Harry Potter dropped the note, gathered his possessions and apparated into the street, called for the night bus with his new wand.

The triple-decker, purple AEC Regent III RT skidded to a halt in front of Harry. He could've sworn a century passed as the doors to the bus began to open. He practically hurled himself through the doors, quickly shouting to Stan The Conductor

"Hermione Granger's residence,

Please"

" You got the sickles?"

Harry frantically patting himself down, coincidentally found 11 sickles in the pocket of his trousers that he seemed to have missed earlier.

" Yes sir I do, can you please hurry. Its extremely urgent"

"Calm yourself down yeah. We are already on the way, in case you haven' noticed" grumbled Stan as he drove down the footpath of a busy street.

Harry quickly paid the 11 sickle fare and bustled into the street of what seemed like an idyllic street. Large red brick houses, with large trimmed front gardens lining his view.

He quickly found the house with the patch of white lilies in the front. Remembering the time Hermione alluded to her helping to plant them with her mom. Harry quickly went to the front door of the house and began to knock. He wasn't ready for the sight of his most trusted and loyal companion. He was nearly blown off his feet by the fuzzy brown haired girl who jumped into his embrace.

Tears, Hermione and Harry did not know they had, ran down their faces as both tried to say how much they cared about the other, because of this there were inaudible blubbering words coming from the mouth of both.

After both had calmed down, Hermione began to address the literal mountain in the room.

"Harry, we are back. Together." Hermione blushed as realisation of the reason she was brought back hit her. "Harry we have to fix things this time".

"Yes love we do, any ideas" Harry smiled

"You saw the note as well. We need to activate your lordship, get supplies, new custom wands and holders, while also becoming masters in occlumency. Nothing big of course."

* * *

About a month after the reunion. Plans are beginning to form but there are some topics that still need debating. Harry and Hermione are in a muggle park discussing how best to approach their situation.

"So, I've been thinking. I took a glance at your Gringotts bank statement and I noticed you had large stakes in many wizarding businesses. Most notably you have a huge galleon balance, approximately 2 million. Not to mention a 51% share in The Daily Prophet, that's majority! You should be able to force them to not take those abominable bribes from Malfoy. That would really help turn the tables in our favour."

"Are you kidding me!This whole time I've basically owned them and they came out falsely criticising me! They let so many people get hurt from their money backed propaganda. They are just as bad as Voldemort from what they've done " Harry gasped, slowly getting angrier as his rage took hold of his body, all the years of rage built up within him suddenly shooting out like the lava from an erupting volcano.

"Please Harry calm down

Everyone is staring at us" Hermione pleaded as she tried to wrap her hands around Harry's.

"I'm done with them, all of them" Harry whispered. "The hurt The Daily Prophet caused was immeasurable."

"I'm so sorry Harry, but we can change that this time"

Hermione stared into his eyes and gave him a kiss on his cheek. A wave of calming flowed through Harry as she did this, and in his opinion, these effects were much better than those of the calming draught.

"Now that we are all calmed down, I made a list of the order we need to do things in. First and foremost, we need to learn Occlumency. I know you got a head start, but I think you should still practice. I've learned the basics this month, but I am nowhere near perfect. Secondly it is important to write an anonymous letter to Amelia Bones and The Daily Prophet regarding the lack of justice in Sirius' case. I should be able to do that one myself, do you think Amelia is trustworthy?"

"Yes I think so, she seems like a fair person who would try to let justice to be done. We agreed to leave Pettigrew alone until we head to Hogwarts"

"Okay that sounds good."

"Lastly we need to go to Diagon Alley and get some much needed supplies and wands. I made a list on paper. Have a look and see what you think"

Harry took the paper from Hermione and read the list

Wands from Ollivanders

Custom/Secret wands

Hidden wand holders

Expandable briefcase like that of Newt Scamander

Protective and specially crafted Robes

Enchanted muggle watches

A card for Harry's Gringotts account

"Okay Hermione that seems good. Let's just work on Occlumency for the rest of our time today."


	2. Dual Duel Wands

**Chapters will continue to be pretty short, as I sit down for like 30 mins and post what I have written. I have notes on my phone guiding me to the plot points I want to hit. Lots of small details are variable. Would you rather I collected them all together into a larger chapter, because I can do that but they'd be a bit delayed.**

 _Returning home from the park alone, Harry has conflicting thoughts about the news regarding The Daily Prophet. It seems to be the emotions of his younger body slipping through the cracks of his older emotional state. The traumatic experiences of his life all piling onto the framework of his emotional state. Harry enters the gates of Privet Drive and is preparing himself to enter the house once more._

Harry reaches for the doorknob and glances inside. He hears the distant sound of the TV playing in the living room. He rushes back inside using the invisibility cloak and silently shuts the door. The Dursleys none the wiser to the boy who is able to leave the house unnoticed.

Inside Harry's closet he slept peacefully through the night.

He was woken to the deafening sound of banging on the closet door.

"Get out of there you brat!" Vernon Dursley bellowed as he furiously banged on the closet door. Shaking the door from its hinges " How did you lock it from the inside boy, you better hope it doesn't open"

"Mr Dursley Im sorry" Harry stammered , acting as pitiful as possible, "Its stuck I cant open it"

" Vernon just leave him for now, we don't want to be late to visit Aunt Marge" Petunia said over the sounds of Vernon frantically trying to break the door of the cupboard under the stairs. Unhesitatingly smashing the door with all the power available to him.

Finally beginning to yield "You got lucky now brat, but dont think it will last" Vernon whispered to Harry through the slit in the cupboard door. Mr. Dursley took his coat and headed for the door where Petunia and Dudley were waiting for him. They slammed the door on the wayout and Harry cast the unlocking charm on the cupboard door. Thanking his magic from preventing the horrifying visit to Aunt Marge and her devil of a dog.

Harry headed out once more to meet Hermione, as not seeing her the last month was killing him. He was forced to be with the Dursleys, so they could keep an eye on him, as they attended different open days for public schools that Dudley didn't have a chance of being accepted into. Luckily for Harry, they didn't seem to notice the differences in Harry's personality. Harry and Hermione had planned to visit Diagon Alley today so that they could pick up what was needed for the times ahead.

Harry apparated to the park where Hermione was waiting for him.

"Hey Harry, I guess our plan worked?"

"Yeah it did thanks to you, brilliant plan by the way"

"Thanks. I brought the oversized cloaks I mentioned before. They should cover our faces and make us appear to be of a smaller race, thereby not bringing us any unwanted attention. Take it, put it on, and then apparate with me to Diagon Alley"

 _Both Harry and Hermione appear next to each other in Diagon Alley._

"Okay" Hermione said glancing at her list. "First stop Gringotts, we need to collect your payment card."

They walked through the alley side by side, avoiding any unwanted attention from people. They arrived in the main entrance to Gringotts, and Harry immediately walked to the nearest goblin teller.

"Hello sir, I will be helping you today. Are you in need of assistance?"

"Hi, I would like to purchase a payment card attached to my Gringotts account, and my vault key, if that is possible"

"And what be your vault name sir"

"My name is Harry Potter and I am requesting access to the Potter vaults"

The goblin was taken aback as the small hooded figure introduced itself as this legendary figure

"Also I would like to keep my presence unknown to any wizards"

"Yes, Lord Potter, discretion is a priority of Gringotts. I assure you nobody else will know of your times here. Please follow me to the client offices and my associates will meet you shortly."

"Am I able to bring my colleague with me to the offices" Inquired Harry

"Yes, of course you may, my lord,".

Harry and Hermione both entered the large ornately decorated client offices and sat down in the large plush seats in front of the Goblin's desk. Shortly two professionally dressed goblins introduced themselves.

"First, I would like to say that what we speak of here will never be said elsewhere, and that we are , basically the goblin communities version of The Unspeakables. We deal with abnormal and delicate cases that cannot be dealt with by ordinary goblins. We remain secret to all of the wizarding community."

Hermione, looking hesitant, questioned the Goblin "And why is it you are required to meet with us today?"

The more senior of the two goblins answered "Yes we are here today to find out why it is Harry is not registered as a minor by our systems magic. There are very few instances which cause this, and it is not our duty to find out why. But we are here to explain the many aspects of knowledge you may be missing in your situation. As this will require an extended amount of time, we will schedule in lessons over a period before you both enter Hogwarts. What will be said Harry's status as Lord of House Potter. If he chooses to accept it, he will be brought into the public's eye before he reaches Hogwarts."

Harry and Hermione glanced at each other in anticipation and Harry broke the now lingering silence.

"And will I be able to delay taking up this lordship until I do reach Hogwarts?"

"No, but the Goblin Community may wait to register the forms with the Wizarding Government, if that is what you wish"

"Yes, that will be necessary to do" added Hermione.

"Both of you would still like to attend our lessons on Lordship, Harry as future lord, and you as his future lady?"

Both Harry and Hermione blushed but before Hermione could open her mouth, Harry answered "Yes"

"Good. That is all we are required to say today. We are looking forward to teaching you again. Here is your vault key and easy payment ring. This is more useful than the card as all you have to do is touch the payment order with your signet ring, which will remain invisible if wanted, and the funds will come directly from your account. If you wish to visit your vault we will show it to you now."

"No thank you, we have a lot to do today. We will just take the key and ring."

"No problem Lord Potter. I wish you both a good day."

Harry and Hermione both left Gringotts wondering just how much the goblins knew about their situation.

"They do seem to be telling the truth about their discretion. Nothing we can worry about at the moment, we still have other things to pick up today. Would you like to pick up our wands next?"

"Yes, I am really excited for these custom wands you were telling me about. I'm excited to see what I get." said Harry "It's nice knowing that I won't have the twin wand to Voldemort's" he said.

Hermione led Harry down Knockturn alley to a small shop without a name on the door

"Are you sure about this" whispered Harry as Hermione walked through the door.

"Always" she answered back. Next, she approached the elderly lady sitting on a stool in the dark corner of the room

"Hello Darlings" rasped the elderly lady. "I see you are looking for two wands."

Both unknowing how she could sense their requests, sat down in the two matching seats she gestured to with her thin hand". The lady was dressed all in grey that perfectly matched the tone of her hair. Her arms long and veiny, wrinkles occupying every inch of visible skin.

"Would the boy or girl like to search for their wand cores first"

"I would" said Harry as she looked at them both

The ancient lady handed Harry an even more ancient bag

"Follow my words carefully dear boy. Place your hand in the bag and say 'Venit cor tuum' then close your hand when you feel the item hit it.

Harry placed his hand in the bag and repeated the words 'Venit cor tuum'. He felt a stinging pain in his hand and he quickly closed his hand shut. He retrieved his hand from the bag. He laid the items onto the small table the elderly woman hand conjured, which Harry did not notice earlier.

He didn't recognize the cores that lay in front of him.

"Very interesting" whispered the lady. "Many years since I have required two cores in one wand."

"What is that even possible? I've never read about such a thing before?" asked Hermione, clearly displeased with the results of Harry's draw.

"Yes it is, this will be a well-crafted wand. Well suited for you indeed. Both the Horn of a Horned serpent and Thunderbird feather, will lend themselves to you. You should be grateful for such protective cores. Next you are my dear. Do you remember the words?"

"Yes I do." muttered Hermione as she reached into the bag and repeated the words. She removed a single core from the bag and placed the core on another conjured table.

"A White River Monster Spine, how delightful, I know of nobody with both of your wand core combinations. They will not be matched by any other wizards wand."

Harry and Hermione looked at each other apprehensively but both decided to carry on when she handed them another bag.

This bag looked less ancient and more polished than any other thing found in the shop. The lady asked Harry to say a new set of words, but this time in English.

He reached into the bags and repeated after the lady " I summon thee"

He drew forth a 9 inch, rigid ebony frame, and placed it next to his two wand cores

Hermione did the same and grasped a 10 inch, rigid walnut frame.

"You may collect your wands in two hours, the cost is 0 galleons each, normally it is more expensive but you both chose materials that are not in demand so I gave you both a little discount. You may call it my contribution to the war effort" the lady said smiling. I'll even throw in a nice pair of wand holders. Ill see you then". The lady said as she hurried Harry and Hermione out of her shop.

"Today has just gotten weirder and weirder" said Harry as he followed Hermione towards 'Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment'

"I heard they have a rare expandable trunk for sale, like the one I read Newt Scamander had." Hermione mentioned, looking at her list. Let's get in and buy it fast.

They quickly headed inside and talked to the shop owner. He showed them to the state of the art expandable featherweight trunk. It was charmed to weigh 10 pounds for muggles and be completely filled with clothes. For wizards, the inside featured a large open living space, twice the size of the largest magical tent, 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, 3 bathrooms, and a mid tier sized library.

They purchased the trunk even though it was pricey, costing 1000 galleons. They both left the store and headed to buy an ice cream while waiting for their wands.

Soon the two hours were up and they headed back to the small shop without a name. They walked in to find two wands and wand holders laying neatly on the desk. The lady sat quietly and asked them to try the wands. Harry and Hermione both picked up their respective wands and a light show never before recorded, lit the room. Both of the wands were more than perfect matches. It was if fate itself chose these wands for them. The ancient looking lady bid them a good day and handed them both instructions about their wand cores attributes.

Harry and Hermione apparated back to the park with their new equipment. They decided to leave the rest of the shopping until tomorrow. There was no rush for things to be done quickly as the Dursleys were at Aunt Marge's for a week. This left lots of time for chores to be finished.


	3. Cloaks, Notes, and tricky skips

**Just a reminder my insta is DylanFordey, pretty cool, Happy Spooky Season.**

 _Harry had just arrived home after a day out with Hermione in Diagon Alley. He was dying to try out his new wand. The Dursleys are gone for a week and currently Harry has the place to himself._

 _He practices Occlumency and tests his new wand for the rest of the day and the next day he and Hermione meet to collect the rest of the supplies._

"Hey Harry, I could barely tell it was you because of that cloak"

"Hey, haha same here I couldn't really tell either"

"I was thinking about collecting our old wands and I realised that Hagrid took you to Diagon Alley last time, and it would be suspicious if you didn't find a wand that properly suited you, so I think it would be best if we don't pick yours up. "

"Are you sure? I mean they'd hardly notice if I showed up with a different wand than the one I would get with Hagrid. Though I guess having three wands would be annoying."

"Harry, it's an unnecessary risk that can easily be avoided, there is no argument happening here. Also, I think this time you should not antagonise Draco early-"

Harry quickly interrupted "Okay, but let's leave the topic of Draco for another day. I just can't stand him calling you a Mudblood."

"Fine Harry. You need to promise me we will actually have that conversation"

"I promise. Where are we headed anyways? I thought we only had to get our wands."

"I called ahead to Madam Malkins, she made it clear she didn't have time for any custom robes. I asked if there were any other people who could do a very delicate job. She recommended a store in Knockturn Alley. Don't give me that look, not every store there is super dark. This clothing store is just a bit….. Underfunded."

They both turned down knockturn alley, avoiding the groups of people who might try to interfere with their fairly direct plath to the store. They opened the door of the "underfunded" clothing shop and heard a small bell ring along the back. The store was decorated beautifully. Fairly deceiving to any unfriendly eyes looking upon the store from the outside.

The walls were lined in an expensive looking purple velvet. There were lines of materials in all fabrics and colours lining the shelves. This continued into the back of the room where a large set of dressing rooms were situated.

In the middle of the room stood a tall lady dressed in the most lavish robes Harry had ever seen. These outlandish colours would easily put Xeno Lovegood's robes to shame.

"Oh hello there darlings. Come to get those ridiculous cloaks off of you I see. The prices of my services might be a little out of your price range?" the lady said pretentiously while peering down at Harry and Hermione.

"No, I actually believe our requests could be out of our skillset" Hermione replied nonchalantly

"I do beg to differ my dear. I have yet to come across any customers who have not left completely satisfied"

"Yes, but I can assure you have never come across any customers like us," replied Hermione condescendingly

"Yes I do seem to like you, what will you be needing? Oh and sorry if I do seem to be ignoring you sir. I find it's the women who know what they're doing in these situations."

Harry simply nodded, not wanting to add any extra attention to himself.

"We are going to need two sets of Hogwarts robes, a set of navy dress robes, and a set of crimson robes. This is per person by the way. I'd like to add some charms are you able to do that?"

"If you have the funds, there's nothing you need to worry about sweetie."

"Okay well on each robe I want 2 bottomless pockets on the outside, three bottomless pockets on the inside, charmed to be weightless, change temperature depending on outside weather, charmed so that its unable to be dirtied, easily changed into muggle clothing, with some added spell resistance against various curses and hexes."

"Yes… ummmm… well that is quite a large and complicated order. I think I'll be able to get that done this month, let me take your measurements now."

"I have our measurements here. Actually Ms. it needs to be finished this week. We will pay for any extra costs this causes, and if done to as high a standard as we expect, we will return here in the future." Hermione explained while handing over a note with both her and Harry's measurements written on it.

"Okay. Deal. I'll have it done before the end of the week, and I will expect to see you shopping here in the future."

"See you then" Harry chimed in before exiting the store into Knockturn Alley with Hermione.

"That's all, right?" asked Harry

"Yeah we can head home now"

"Why did I have to come along anyway? That lady made me feel pretty uncomfortable."

"Don't you want to see me," asked Hermione smirking

"Oh be quiet would you" said Harry sarcastically

"Haha okay Harry. Make sure you practice your Occlumency for the rest of the week. Mines coming along pretty well."

"Well, what else could I expect from the smartest witch of the century?"

"Promise me you'll also start setting up the apartment in your trunk. We will need that once the year starts. Oh I nearly forgot to check to see if the vanishing cabinet is being sold. You head home and I'll talk to you later."

"Okay Hermione but be careful. I'll see you soon"

 _Harry apparated back to Privet Drive, and Hermione continued on with her errands._

 _They both continued with their Occlumency lessons throughout the week. Hermione dropped the clothes off before the Dursleys returned home. Harry stored them in his trunks closet. Hermione bought the vanishing cabinet and stored it in Harry's trunk. They decide to wait until Hogwarts starts before meeting again, in case there is more surveillance on Harry as Hogwarts approaches. They both improve their Occlumency dramatically, attend the lordship meetings whenever Harry is able to. He learns about an inherited home that has been in his family for generations. Harry's treatment by the Dursleys seems to be growing worse every day until Harry finally receives the first letter from Hogwarts._

Harry was ecstatic the day he received the first Hogwarts letter, granted he acted like he knew no better. He was basically jumping in excitement when they reached the lighthouse. He knew Hagrid would be arriving today on his birthday, he was excited to be seeing his longtime friend once more. He had an idea this time to ask Hagrid if he could rent a room in the leaky cauldron instead of going back to the Dursleys. This way he wouldn't have to stay with them any longer than needed, and he would hopefully get to see Hermione when she went to Diagon Alley with her parents.

Harry was waiting anxiously as he counted down the seconds until Hagrid would begin to knock. He had already placed his belongings in his trunk so the Dursleys didn't suspect anything, he did a slight confundus charm so they would not be surprised when he retrieved the trunk and his belongings once Hagrid asked.

Finally, the time had come as he heard the loud booms of Hagrid's knocks. The Dursleys rushed downstairs and everything happened exactly like last time. They were just as surprised when Dudley grew his tail, and it wasn't any less funny to Harry the second time. Hagrid asked him to come along once more and this time Harry had actual belongings that he could bring with him.

He was excited to be with Hagrid again and this time he wasn't as shy towards him. Harry asked him about Dumbledore and about Hagrid's various creatures. When they reached the leaky cauldron and people came to meet Harry, he didn't receive the pain in his scar like he did last time. He guessed this was one of the benefits of being sent back in time. Harry was also happy to see his hidden wand began to vibrate as Quirrel drew closer, he expected this is what the lady's note meant when she said the wand could be able to predict danger and respond on its own. He was very hesitant because he wasn't sure if the wand could send out curses when Harry wasn't even holding it. Thankfully, nothing seemed to have happened when Harry and Hagrid had left for buying supplies. He got all of his school books just like last time, and he ended up at Ollivanders with Hagrid.

"How very peculiar Mr. Potter, I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather resides in your wand gave another feather... just one other. It is curious that you should be destined for this wand when its brother gave you that scar."

"I'm not very sure what you mean by that sir, but how do wizards hold their wands when they're not using it?"

"Well Mr. Potter, us wizards sometimes have what is known as a concealed wand holder to hold your wand when you're not using it. They're very useful and I have some for sale in this shop if you would like to see it."

"Yes Please sir" Harry answered before turning to Hagrid and asking "Hagrid could I please get one, they seem very useful and I know I would use it a lot. Could I please buy myself one, it could be a birthday present to myself."

"Er.. Ok, Gowan and buy yerself one then, but make sure yer not wasting your galleons" answered Hagrid, who was preoccupied with hiding his umbrella from Ollivander.

"Here you go Mr. Potter, your wand and its holder. Oh and let it be noted that all holders are charmed against summoning and will remain invisible to others' eyes."

"Thank you, and here are the galleons" answered Harry as he handed Ollivander 15 galleons.

Harry took the wand and holder, placed them on his arm above the still invisible wand holder which is currently holding his custom wand. He planned to put the Elder wand in the second holder once he reached Hogwarts.

This time when Harry was getting the standard Hogwarts robes, he stood on the opposite side as Malfoy and did not end up in a conversation with him like last time. He managed to avoid most conversations that he had last time and began to talk to Hagrid about staying in the Leaky Cauldron.

"Hey Hagrid, I was… erm…. hoping that I wouldn't have to go back to the Dursleys before school started. I'm afraid that after I come back they'll hurt me more than they normally do."

"What do yer mean they'll hurt ya? They haven hurt you before 'ave they?" Hagrid asked astonished

"Um… Hagrid…" Harry pulled up the back of his shirt slightly, just enough to show Hagrid the slight scarring he has received from Vernon. "They also won't let me out from under the cupboard"

"Harry, I'm sorry, I failed ya, I'm the one who put ya with the monsters from the start," Hagrid said on the verge of tears. Hagrid embraced Harry in a bone-crushing hug, tears in his eyes. "I'll never make ye go back there. Stay here, I'll pay for ya, it's the least I could do after I caused that to happen to ya"

Harry, seeing how it made Hagrid feel, agreed to him paying for the room. Thinking that it would make him feel better.

Harry and Hagrid headed to the Leaky Cauldron and Hagrid paid for a room for Harry. Harry brought his belongings to the room and settled down. Hagrid came up to the room and said goodbye, but he will come back the day Harry needed to be dropped to Platform 9 ¾. Harry asked to be dropped in early so there would be no way he would be late.

After he settled down into his room. Harry headed into his trunk and entered the bedroom decorated in bland taste that the trunk originally came with. He planned to head to his Gringotts vault and collect various family photos and ornaments that he could use to decorate his room.

He also sat down and fastened his elder wand into the holder. He made the code to summon the custom wand, Fate, and the name for the elder wand, Hallow.

After Harry did this, he went to sleep and awoke the next day in order to visit his Gringotts vault

 **Basically, this starts off and has a time jump to Hagrid's visit to Harry. Over this time jump, Hermione becomes sufficient enough in Occlumency (Harry already was), they attend some goblin lordship meetings together. They both decide to stop meeting each other until closer to Hogwarts stops. Any other questions? Write a review and I'll respond.**


	4. Snape, Snakes, curtain drapes

**Just so you know… my instagram is Dylanfordey. Also my school is starting once more this week, so I wont be able to post as quickly compared to how fast I posted this house should Harry and Hermione be in? Also if everyone seems to dislike this chapter I'll take it down and scrap the idea of the familiar( probably won't regardless of opinions anyways). Technically I don't think the situation is that unrealistic and enjoy writing it.**

 _Harry had just woken up in his room. He got ready for the day ahead. He hoped to go shopping for extracurricular supplies once he finished his time at Gringotts._

Harry was entering his family vault, and what he saw amazed him. All around him were shelves filled with various items and objects. Ranging from family portraits to ward stones. In front of him was an open large chest filled with galleons and jewels. He figured the chest was bottomless as it had to house more galleons than could possibly fit in the largest of chests. This however, was not what he was here for. He collected the pieces of furniture and then levitated them into his trunk. When he was satisfied with the interior look of the trunk he removed the furniture that came with the trunk. He asked the goblin waiting outside the vault to have it destroyed, and he headed back out of Gringotts.

 _After having finished his necessities, he began to skim over his books to ensure he did not have to relearn any theory in any of his classes, this ensured he would have extra time to train what he truly needed to train. The following days he had a low profile, but when he finished reviewing, he decided to go out and purchase more advanced books._

Harry headed into Flourish and Blotts to pick up books from a wide range of subjects. While in the shop he picked up the Advanced Transfiguration and Charms textbooks that he was looking for, he also found a large stack of old books to do with medicine. He decided to buy the old books after he saw the title of one was 'Parselmouths Inherent Language'. He was interested in finding out what hidden magic he can learn that will give him an advantage over others. He read the chapter titles and first few pages, and was surprised to see that most of the complicated magic required a magical familiar. Harry was disappointed while reading the chapters but realised that Hagrid must have been referring to Hedwig when he said he would have a surprise for Harry come September 1st, this would explain why he didn't notice Hedwig while he was passing the store.

Harry went to pay for the books, as he was walking up to the desk a taller man dressed in black was arguing with the shop assistant

"I was told that the updated potions mastery book would be sent in today. Yet I do not see it on the shelves. Is that due to your incompetence or the suppliers?"

Harry immediately recognised the man as Severus Snape, while also remembering having seen it in a smaller store in Knockturn alley and made a spur of the moment decision.

"Sir I believe the smaller store in Knockturn Alley has the newest issue"

Snape turned around glaring at Harry. He looked him up and down, but nearly fell over when he glanced Harry's scar. He was taken aback by the comment so much that he didn't get to respond in time before the boy said

"I recognise you from pictures I have at home. I think you knew my mother, Lily Potter. It's a pleasure to meet you sir. I'm sorry to say I don't recognise you… Who might you be?"

Snape, not understanding how Harry would have a picture of him nonetheless know how there were updated copies being sold in a store from Knockturn Alley of all places, decided to play along with the boy.

"Yes I knew Lily Potter, or more I knew Lily Evans. We were childhood friends, but were separated as we entered Hogwarts. Where I am now head of slytherin house, known to the students as Professor Snape"

"Professor Snape, Head of Slytherin, so you would be interested in knowing I am a Parselmouth? But am unable to have a snake as my familiar."

"You are a Parselmouth?" asked Snape, trying his best to sound calm and collected

"Indeed I am, I was also just about to buy some interesting books regarding it. I was just hoping that you might permit the purchase of a snake as my familiar. This would allow me to practice forms of rare parselmagic after all. Something you as Slytherins head would be wanting to promote, if I am correct"

Snape amazed at how much Harry was like Lily decided that he was not going to go against Harry Potter, but instead try to help him in situations where he could. Of course, he would still have to keep up his act if he wasn't sorted into Slytherin "Yes I do have the authority to allow this special familiar, but must warn you that losing the option of an owl can be very.. painstaking. "

"Oh well I realised that sir, but I believe that this familiar shouldn't be treated as a familiar per say, but instead a school supply in aiding my parseltongue ability. That would allow me to also have an owl as my designated familiar."

Impressed by his reasoning Snape decided to allow Harry Potter, in his eyes now Harry Evans, the use of this familiar. "Those reasons do seem adequate, and I will sponsor the use of an Owl and Snake familiar. What house are you hoping to be sorted into? Irrational Gryffindor just like your father I imagine"

"Im hoping for Ravenclaw, Slytherin, or Gryffindor, in no particular order."

"No room for hard work I see. I'm disappointed that I expected better from our resident celebrity"

"Actually sir, I believe that those houses signify my most PROMINENT characteristics. I still however, view myself as hardworking and loyal." Harry answered, trying to sound as cool and pretentious as he thought possible.

"That doesn't sound too horrible as an excuse Mr. Potter, but I must be going now. I will note your suggestion of book store for now. I expect you will not be late for my Potions class" and as Snape said that he left, the shop assistant stood blank faced, cleary shocked that any boy could refute Snape as Harry had just done.

"Ummm.. that is going to be 25 ga-galleons sir." stammered the shop assistant

Harry quickly handed over the galleons, stored his books in the bottomless pockets of his robes hurried out of the store, he headed to the magical menagerie just to make sure that Hedwig was not there, as he wouldn't want to forget her there.

"Hello son, how may I help you today?" asked the shopkeeper, startling Harry who did not notice the shopkeeper standing behind him.

"I'm just looking for a beautiful white owl? I saw her recently but she does not seem to be here now?"

"Oh yes, marvelous owl she was, I think I remember a bushy haired girl buying her sometime last week. From what I remember she seemed to be very excited while purchasing even bought the most ugly cat from what I remember. Talk about contrasting tastes" answered the shopkeeper chuckling a bit

"Anything else I can help you with, or will that be all for today? I know it can be disappointing losing the option to buy something you really want"

"Yes you're right. I'm also looking for a snake or some kind of magical snake? If you have any."

"No I'm afraid to say I have no clue where you would find or buy a snake, let alone a magical one."

"Oh okay. Well thanks for the help, have a nice day" Harry said, exiting the store. This sense of loss ate at Harry and he decided that it would be best to get an icecream while trying to forget how horribly his day seemed to turn, at least Hermione had bought Hedwig, that really lifted his spirits.

While up next in the line for ice cream, for some reason unknown to Harry, he had the most powerful urge to use his Elder Wand. Forsaking any other thoughts that might enter his mind, he quickly left the ice cream line, ran through Diagon Alley, he was basically exploding in anticipation as he got back to his room at the leaky cauldron, he fiddled at the clasps of his trunk then slammed open the lid and entered. He quickly entered the sitting room where there was adequate space to use his wand.

Once he was in the sitting room of his trunk, Harry was compelled to take out his Elder Wand, he quickly said "Hallow" and when the Elder Wand shot into his hand, his custom wand started vibrating, it vibrated so much that Harry also had to remove it from its holster. Feeling his magical core suddenly draining, and holding both wands in his hand, he began to panic. His first instinct was to drop the wands, but before he could try to drop the wands, a large red spell shot out of his custom wand, as if to protect him like the lady said it would, it seemed to have conjured a large snake. Before Harry could even look at the snake a white, red, and gold light shot out of the Elder Wand. It hit the snake and made it glow a magnificent gold for a few seconds.

Harry took a long look at the Horned Serpent, not recognising it from anything he had ever seen.

The serpent was a pure black that seemed to suck in all light and reflect nothing, Harry would have thought it to be a rip in the Universe if it did not have the neon blue crossbands going along its back and sapphire jewel embedded in its head, both contrasting beautifully with the black of the serpent. As it lifted its head in the air, Harry could see a glossy white underbelly, and it reminded him of the Great White Shark camouflage that he saw on TV once.

Harry, unsure of what will happen commanded the serpent in Parseltongue " _sssSpeak to me. Why isss it you have come?"_

" _I have been sssummoned by you, my familiar"_ hissed the Horned Serpent looking Harry directly in the eyes

" _If you have be sssumoned then you will vanisssh? How then could you be my familiar"_ asked Harry genuinely curious as to why his wand summoned this magical serpent only for it to vanish later

" _That isss true, if you had not ssstruck me with the ancient ssspellsss"_ replied the serpent, giving Harry a look he could only describe as amusement.

Harry, feeling his magical core begin to rebuild, decided that this must be another great present death has given him. He immediately accepted the serpent as a loyal friend; which it will surely prove over the course of time, and had yet to be introduced.

" _Yesss, my familiar, do you have sssomething which to call you by?"_ asked Harry

" _I have yet to be named, but asssk you not to name me Hedwig"_ the serpent winked and Harry couldn't help himself from giggling

" _I am a Horned sssSerpent, one of the lassst 10 magical ssserpents roaming your world. I am a female, like your Owl. Im sssure you can think of sssomething that isss fitting"_

" _I will call you Hera, asss you have causssed me much chaosss already"_ answered Harry jokingly

Hera simply nodded understandingly

" _Then I ssshall call you ssstupid"_ replied Hera, clearly enjoying herself too much

" _You might be too large to bring asss my familiar to Hogwartsss"_ said Harry concerned, ignoring her last line.

Hera didn't need to respond to Harry as she shrunk in length until she was barely a foot long, she slithered up Harry's legs and curled around his neck in a loop. Hera was stunningly beautiful, and could pass off as jewellery had anyone been skilled enough to make a piece as magnificent as she was. The sapphire in her head complemented that idea perfectly, and Harry decided that is how they would be travelling from now on. This way he could keep Hera mostly concealed, and hide her from the rest of the school for as long as possible. Harry also knew that if the school found out next year during the Chamber of Secrets incident, then Harry would be in a much worse position than he already was.

He also decided to surprise Hermione when on the train to Hogwarts.

It was beginning to get dark so Harry decided that he would read some of the parselmagic book then he would go to sleep.

As he read the book, Hera lifted her head from Harry's neck and read along with him, they continued reading until late into the night where gradually both drifted to sleep.

 **Hera is a Horned Serpent, I did some googling and I thought it would be a good choice. Basically the custom wand conjured the snake (Serpensortia) and the Elder Wand used an ancient spell that prevents Hera, from being vanished. She is basically a live/real horned serpent now. Also I reply to all reviews asking questions, as I know there will be a lot. Ill also respond in greater detail if you ask on Insta, I'm on there like 24/7**


	5. The 4 H's on the way to Hogwarts

**Soz, this was super rushed, but now we are finally in Hogwarts. Can't wait for the Crimes of Grindelwald on Friday, I really hope there's a horned serpent in there so I could have more details to use in this story, otherwise I will have to come up with some realistic details based on info from the harry potter wiki. As always, my insta is DylanFordey.**

 _Harry and Hera had just woken up in their trunk. They had a good night sleep and are both ready to practice their magic religiously until they have to go to the Hogwarts express._

Harry had just gotten dressed, he realised that he couldn't see Hera

"Hera, Hera, where are you? Are you here?"

" _Yesss I am where I wasss, ssstill around your neck"_ Harry looked down to see that Hera had become visible after previously been disillusioned.

" _The sssapphire on my head allowsss me to disssillusssion myssself_ _when needed."_ answered Hera

" _I can alssso disssillusssion you asss well"_ she answered

Harry had no idea she could do this because he had not seen it in any of the Parselmagic books that he read about.

" _Okay, letsss get ssstarted on the reading and practice for today"_

Harry and Hera both began reading and practicing smaller spells all day, but when they encountered useful spells that could not be done in the trunk they left a mark on the page.

After another full day of annotating the book and trying spells, Harry and Hera were exhausted early into the day; until they find a spell that allowed them to recharge their magic almost instantly. The book alluded to the spell being extremely simple to cast, but required a large magic pool to refill. Harry and Hera found they were able to cast the spell almost instantly over and over again. The full potential of this spell did not hit Harry, but Hera made sure to mention how this could be useful in duels, and other aspects.

Harry and Hera were very pleased with how much they had done in the day, but were amazed to see that they did not seem to have come a long way into the book.  
"There must be 1000s of spells in this book, you never even would have guessed when looking at it from the outside" exclaimed Harry. Hera nodded her head.

"Oh I completely forgot about food, I didn't even feel hungry because of that parselmagic spell; what do you eat anyways? Should I just order food for myself and give you some?"

Asked Harry, remembering that Hera has not eaten since he first met her.

" _Thatsss okay, we can jussst do that"_

Harry then ordered his favourite from the three broomsticks and split it with Hera, they chatted for a while about the different spells they encountered, and would like to try once they got to use the room of requirement. Some of the spells looked very powerful and interesting, although some of them were borderline dark, and dark, they decided they would still try them because they would not be holding back during this war.

Once again the duo read the parselmagic book while in bed, and fell asleep reading it. This pattern continued, although they remembered to eat the recommended three meals a day, until the day they needed to go to Platform 9 ¾.

Harry woke up early, packed all of his things, made sure Hera was hidden around his neck, and then waited until someone showed to bring him there.

It was 10:30am when Harry started to worry that he was forgotten about by Hagrid, or whoever Hagrid asked to bring Harry. He decided to wait until 10:45 before apparating to King Cross Station. While he waited, nobody showed to the room and he apparated to Kings Cross.

He arrived in the iconic view of King Cross station, he made sure nobody saw him apparate, and headed towards the Platform.

He arrived at the platform where his adventure started all those years ago, this time he would not be entering knowing nothing, he would be entering knowing the future and valuable secrets.

He hurried onto the train five minutes before it was scheduled to leave, and immediately set out to find Hermione.

Harry searched through all of the carriages until he found the carriage that Harry and Hermione had met in from the start. Harry tried to open the door, but found it was locked. Harry cast the unlocking charm and entered the compartment.

He was immediately bombarded with a hug from Hermione and subsequently a blush as well.

Harry was so Happy to see her that he nearly missed the beautifully white snowy owl also in the compartment.

After Harry had said Hey to Hermione he addressed his attention to Hedwig.

"Hey girl, it's lovely seeing you. I think the both of us will get along wonderfully."

Harry cracked a tear when he thought back to how Hedwig had taken the curse from him. He wiped the thought from his mind and began to explain to Hermione the events since they've last seen each other.

"Hermione, I'd like you to meet Hera." Harry said as he lifted Hera from around his neck and placed her in his lap

Hermione was astonished, to say the least, when Harry placed a magical and rare serpent into his lap. This was blown to pieces when Hera began to expand in Harry's lap until she reached a meter or more. Hermione wasn't sure if this was the max size of the snake but nearly shrieked when Hera slithered from Harry to Hermione.

"She's beautiful isn't she?" Harry said to Hermione " We have even been practicing some rare parselmagic, and found many useful spells that will benefit us-"

"Harry are you kidding me? Do you remember what happened when Hogwarts found out you were a parseltongue? Can you imagine what it will be like when you also have a giant snake?"

"Yes, but I know better this time. Do you think I should show Hera off from the start? Or hide her for as long as possible?"

"I think it would be better if you showed her from the start, that way it won't be suspicious if you are found hiding her. Thank god you have permission from Snape and Dumbledore, it would be horrible otherwise."

" You are very beautiful aren't you Hera?" Asked Hermione as she gently rubbed Hera's back, slowly getting over the anxiousness she had at the start.

"What do you think about the Sorting Harry? Will we be in the same house as last time, we are very different to who we are then?"

"Honestly, I haven't thought about it much. I know I will be in the same house as you, and that's all that really matters. What does matter is how much we are willing to show off our magic ability. We should be top two in the year anyways, but how superior or inferior should we be in dueling?"

"I didn't even think about that… It mainly affects you, whatever you think is best?"

"I think I should show off a bit, It would be well to promote the image of the Boy-Who-Lived. Also this way Malfoy would never try to do anything stupid, I owe his mom you know. I feel like I have to try get him to convert to the light. I think the best way to do that would be antagonise him from the start, but then less and less as we grow older, unlike what happened in our previous lives."

" Thats good, you will even be the ideal slytherin with Hera by your side, can you even imagine what The Daily Prophet will try to print?" laughed Hermione.

"Well, this time we will be the ones leading propaganda. Speaking of The Daily Prophet, I have the letter about Sirius Black's trial ready to be sent by anonymous owl."

"Oh thank god, I've been looking forward to seeing Sirius again, when will you send the letter?"

"I'm thinking of a few weeks into school when the Boy-Who-Lived hype has died down a bit. This would let them print about it daily while there is no other news to be reported."

"Okay that sounds great, I think I'm going to go for a nap while I still can."\

"Don't mind if I join you?" asked Hermione smirking as she cast a charm to wake them up when they are close.

Hera slithered around Harry's neck and shrunk back to the necklace size. Harry, Hera, Hermione and Hedwig all fell asleep around each other on the way to Hogwarts. The group were not interrupted while they were in the compartment, and slept peacefully all the way to Hogwarts.


	6. Sorting, Sunshine, and Sleepovers

**Crimes of Grindelwald was so good, sadly there's no Horned Serpent to use as a description. So I'll just have to use the limited information from the website. Hope you guys enjoy it too. As always, my insta is dylanfordey. This was meant to be longer, and is probably riddled with mistakes but I just couldn't type anymore, soz.**

 _The Hogwarts Express is just arriving to Hogwarts. The group are woken by the alarm they set earlier. They are already in their robes and have just collected what they needed to disembark the express._

" Harry, you take Hedwig, that way people won't suspect you have two familiars. I'll bring in Crookshanks some other time, my parents are minding him now."

"Okay sure, do you want me to carry your trunk?"

"Oh how chivalrous of you" laughed Hermione

Harry took both bags and brought them to the exit of the express. They finally heard the horn signalling they had arrived. The doors opened and they were the first to exit. They arrived in the same place they had before, they waited until Hagrid gathered all of the first years together and Harry and Hermione got in their own boat.

They sat in the boats looking at Hogwarts in the distance, and both had a sense of euphoria seeing Hogwarts on the horizon, unharmed. They were brought back to the many years they spent there and even with the pressing issues, felt relieved. Hogwarts would be alot more enjoyable now that they were more sure of themselves. This time there would be no more long nights studying for meaningless tests, and wondering if anything is even worth it. All they had to do was get rid of the plague that inflicted them when they first spent their lives there. They were so excited to see all of their yearmates sitting in the boats around them with a look of awe on their faces. Harry and Hermione finally felt like they were at home, not having been there in years, and just the idea of waiting to see the insides of the great hall again was killing them. They enjoyed spending time in the boat together but as soon as the ride started, it ended. They put their trunks with everyone elses and headed to the entrance of the Great Hall. They were surrounded by the group of chattering first years, all around them people asking questions and others answering confidently. Even if those answers were completely wrong. Harry had to bite his lip when he saw Ron talking to Seamus Finnigan, he wasn't sure how he could control himself if Ron did anything to provoke them. He also saw Draco approaching the front of the group and Harry quickly bumped into him on purpose.

"Oh I'm very sorry," but before Draco could sneer his response Harry quickly added "Im Harry Potter, nice to meet you"

As taken aback as Draco was, he still managed to reply politely "Malfoy, Draco. What house are you hoping to be in? I'm thinking Slytherin or Ravenclaw. My family has been Slytherin for the generations."

"I honestly don't know, I think Ravenclaw seems like the best choice for me, but anywhere apart from Hufflepuff is okay with me" answered Harry, hoping this conversation was enough to sway Draco from the bigotry present in Slytherin.

"Hello students, I am professor McGonagall. I have already met some of you, others I have not met yet. I am the Deputy Headmistress, and the Head of Gryffindor house, please follow me into the great hall where The Sorting will take place. I hope all of you find the family you are looking for here." she said in her thick Scottish drawl.

She led the students into the Great Hall where she called up the students individually. The results from the sorting seem to be going the same, Harry watched as Hermione was called to the sorting hat. Harry was waiting anxiously as the sorting hat took twice as much time with Hermione than it did last time. Harry was really beginning to worry when the sorting hat shifted on her head and seemed to make up its mind. "GRYFFINDOR" the hat screamed. A huge uproar went around the tables as the sorting could finally continue.

Harry felt so relieved that Hermione would be in Gryffindor with him again. Harry waited for the other sortings to happen and soon it was Draco who would be sorted. Harry waited for Draco to sit on the chair, he was surprised when the hat didn't immediately scream Slytherin. He was even more surprised when the hat nearly took a minute to scream "SLYTHERIN". Harry was disappointed, but still surprised that it took so long to choose his house. Hermione gave a quick glance to Harry and winked. Harry was next up to the sorting hat and was almost happy when everyone went silent hearing his name. He walked to the stool, and placed the hat on his head.

"Oh another sorting I see, Ya liked the last one?"

"Umm yes, just please put me in the same house as Hermione."

"Are you sure that you want to be in Gryffindor again, you might be better off in another house this time. Your plans might be better accomplished when you are in another house."

" I am sure that I want to be put in Gryffindor with Hermione"

"I cannot talk about other young minds, but I can say your plans to influence those you know would be better if you are sorted into another house. You being put in slytherin could heavily sway some opinions to your side."

"Sure but I would be against the houses and be outcasted inside and outside of Slytherin."

"You'd be surprised, I can't actually go against your wishes so just make the decision, I'll say it, and I can finally be off your head. It's been one of the longest sortings I've ever had, and I just want to get off your head."

"Okay then sort me into Gryffindor"

Harry removed the hat from his head, everyone seemed even more confused by this but Harry realised why when the hat didn't shout any house. A wave of panic hit Harry as he wondered if he would end up being cast out without being assigned a house. He looked around in confusion and the professors present seemed to be just as confused. He stood there awkwardly for what felt like a lifetime until the Hat shouted

"GRYFFINDOR"

The whole Gryffindor table erupted in cheering louder than anytime before. Harry couldn't help but smiling when he saw all of his house cheering him on once again. He hoped that he could prevent all the hurt that was experienced last time around. He sat down in the space Hermione left him and he could feel that Hermione was just as excited as he was.

They were sitting across from Fred and George, and they just couldn't but smiling when the twins pulled out there usual antics. The atmosphere felt just as it had when they were first there, fun and exciting. Harry didn't even have the pain in his scar while looking at Professor Quirrell.

After the Sorting had finished Harry watched Dumbledore walk to the podium and do the same exact speech that he did last time.

He almost felt bad for Albus, apart from the grueling manipulations he did for what he considered the 'greater good', he actually did care about his students and friends. Harry tried his best to ignore the feeling about Albus, and refocused on Fred and George chatting to Hermione. Harry and Hermione pretended to know a lot about each other because of the time they spent on the Hogwarts Express.

Halfway through the meal Ron decided to sit next to his brothers and he joined in the conversation with them.

"I'm Ron. Nice to meet ye. Did you hear about the potions professor? Professor Snape. I heard he hates all the other houses, plus he's like super unfair to us as well."

"I don't think Professor Snape is that bad, I think he knew my parents" answered Harry

"Well let's see how much you will like him when he takes 100 house points from you for breathing. What's your name?" Ron asked Hermione.

"Hermione Granger. I'm muggleborn."

"Muggleborn? Really. I can teach you some spells if you want. My brothers Fred and George taught me how to turn my pet yellow."

"Yes please, I'd love to see that magic spell."

Ron took out his rat and performed the same spell that he tried last time. Harry and Hermione were doing their best to control the laughing, Fred and George were on the brink of tears, clutching at each others robes on the brink of completely falling apart.

"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow." Ron said confidently, whirling his wand around randomly.

Nothing Happened.

Fred and George, along with all the new spectators of the spell, erupted in laughter.

Ron was playing along with the joke, laughing and, pretending to have known it wasn't a spell.

"How could you possibly think thats a spell? Haven't you noticed most of the spells are latin?" asked Hermione sarcastically.

"How could you know anything about spellcasting? You're just a muggle born who barely knows anything about the wizarding world." Ron said desperately, trying to keep his not yet forged reputation intact. His face was nearly as red as his hair.

"If I'm just a stupid muggle born.. I'll bet you a galleon that I can actually turn your rat yellow." answered Hermione, determined to teach him a lesson for the words that would have destroyed the original self confidence she had going to Hogwarts.

"Fine. Deal" answered Ron

Hermione took out her custom wand, the beautiful and ornate wand shocked those who could see the wand, the clear superiority that her wand displayed was unique to see in any wand. She flawlessly changed Scabbers' coat to yellow, then changed him back to his original colour.

"Does muggle mean magically gifted, Ron? I think you owe me one galleon." she said innocently.

Ron stormed off red faced, clearly embarrassed that he got bested by a muggleborn on the first day. Especially in front of the new students around them. All of the new first years bustled around Hermione asking how she knew that and if she could teach them. She was already teaching everyone how to create gradients in Scabbers colours when Professor Flitwick came to the table and gave her 15 house points for teaching her housemates, and another 5 for knowing how to do it.

The night was nearly over when Harry had started talking to Neville Longbottom, Harry mentioned that he was family friends with Neville, and Nevilles whole day was cheered up.

Neville and Harry talked about their lives growing up, and Harry made sure to ask questions that complimented Neville. Harry asked if he wanted to be bunkmates and Neville excitedly answered yes.

The feast was officially over and the prefects led the students out of the great hall, the walk from the great hall to the dormitories were fairly uneventful, apart from the talk with Percy.

"I noticed that you received 20 house points for embarrassing another student, so I think it's only fitting to remove 10. You clearly had prior knowledge and lied about your abilities in order to trick Ronald Weasley out of his galleons. You're very lucky that I don't remove all the points and give you detention."

"Its very early to be losing your prefect badge, Percy. Don't you think? I'm only guessing that removing house points given to me by a Head of House goes against your duties as prefect. Not to mention that you're blatantly favouring your brother." Hermione answered in the most confrontational voice she could manage in her first year body.

"How dare you make those accusations against me. I'll have you know that I completely deserve this badge, and what you're saying is false." Percy said while storming off to the front of the line of students. Hermione wanted nothing more than to take out her concealed wand and embarrass Percy in front of everyone. She reached for the wand but before she could get it out she felt a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She glanced at Harry quickly but when she looked away he squeezed her shoulder harder and when she looked back he gave her a reassuring smile.

This smile immediately calmed her down and she returned to walking in line, with the rest of the group.

They ended up spending the night the same way they did last time, Hermione chose the same bunk, but Harry chose one next to Neville. Thankfully he didn't actually have to talk to Ron because even though it's not the same Ron from the past, its still the Ron he considered his best friend for basically all of Hogwarts.

He set up his trunk on the bed, closed the curtains around his area, and headed into the apartment. He immediately checked on Hera.

" _Hello Harry, itsss too cramping, sssitting around your neck. Pleassse make me known to the ssschool sssoon. I would rather be left in the apartment otherwissse."_

" _Fine Hera, I will make you visssible soon. During the potionsss classss would be bessst."_

" _Thank you, you look ssslightly tired, you ssshould go to sssleep early for classses tomorrow."_

"Fine alright I'll go to bed, you sound like the mother I never had" he muttered.


	7. Serpent, Snape and Arrant Knaves

**When I tell you I'm super disappointed I mean it. Two years ago my parents gave me the choice of moving to Massachussets and Ireland. Where in Massachusetts? Harvard, with a population of 6000 people. I just found out the whole 2 stores that were in the town were taken up by the new Emma Watson movie set... The people I met when I was there all said that they helped the cast set up. The coincidence is too much for Emma Watson crush to handle, anyways I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

 _Harry had just woken up Monday morning, Hera was already awake and ushered him to get ready for his first class at Hogwarts. Harry was nearly late for the first potion class with Snape._

Harry rushed down into the common room where he found Hermione waiting for him and looking a bit annoyed that he was as late as he was.

"Harry! It's the first day, couldn't you at least be early to this class? You missed breakfast though. So I brought you a chicken roll." she handed him the roll and she hurried him out of the common room to go to potions.

"So our resident celebrity might actually know the answers to Snape's questions this time?"

"I'm not sure he will ask them this time. I think he had a real attitude change when I talked to him about Hera. Not to mention I will be showing her to the school this class, well it depends how it goes but Hera I promise I'll show you soon" Harry felt Hera coil around his neck a bit tighter to show she was okay with his plans."

"Sure, we can wait and see how the class goes. If Snape antagonises you like he did last time then we can just wait a while and show her another way. We need to remember that we are playing the long game."

Harry and Hermione entered the potions class a few minutes ahead of the bell, they chose the desks near the center and waited for class to start. Everyone seemed to be in class already, Hermione noticed that Ron seemed to have made friends with Seamus already. She pitied his results now that she wasn't there to constantly tell him to study. She was also reminded that she wouldn't have to constantly stress over report cards this time around.

As Hermione was thinking of how to spend her now near empty schedule Snape came into the room exactly as he did last time.

"There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class. As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science of the potion making. However, for those of you who possess the predisposition, I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the sense; I can tell you how to brew glory, bottle fame, and even put a stopper in death. Then again some of you have come to Hogwarts in possession of abilities so formidable that you feel comfortable enough to not pay attention… Mr Weasley, if you utter one more word in my class, I will personally pack your bag and kick you out of Hogwarts. You've not been in my class 5 minutes and I can already you failing first year."

"I see our resident celebrity has made it to my class." Snape directed to Harry.

" I hope you will be as good as your mother was, or else I don't see much point in being the celebrity. I expect top performance in my class after you pestered me into letting you have the snake as your familiar."

Before Harry could say anything polite in response, Hera uncoiled from around his neck and slithered onto the table where she kept increasing her size.

She looked at Harry

" _Ssshould I ssshow them my largessst sssize?Ssscare them out of their sssilly ssstereotypes"_ Hera asked sarcastically gesturing towards the rest of the class.

Harry glanced around to see the whole class nearly falling over each other so they can get to the furthest point away for them. Even Hermione was backing away in order to blend in with the rest of the class. Snape looked on astonished at how large Hera was growing, it seemed to be indefinite, he could only imagine how easily Hera could overpower nangini. He wasn't even sure what kind of species it was. He knew one thing for certain, there was no way that the snake was in fact real.

Snape took his wand out and before anyone could react he cast the Evanesco charm, he watched in horror as the spell was attracted to the gem in Heras head and then imply absorbed the spell.

Harry realising the disaster this could turn out to be, quickly spoke to Hera in parseltongue

" _Hera dear, pleassse ssshrink again, youre ssscaring all of our ssschoolmatesss."_

Hera seemed to notice everyones reactions to her size and began to shrink again. If the class was disturbed when Hera enlarged, it was in uproar when Harry spoke parseltongue.

The amount of kids shouting he was the dark lord shocked Harry. Snape cast a silencing charm on the room and gave the kids a murderous glare

"I expect you all to stop being complete idiots. No harm will come to you from Harry Potter or his familiar. Now sit down before I take house points from you all."

Some of the Slytherin students sat down, and all of the Gryffindor students took their seats again.

Snape noticed that some of the Slytherins were still standing so he decided to take some decisive action to assert his dominance over the class once again.

"5 points from Slytherin for each student standing." The whole class was shocked but Harry and Hermione were absolutely stunned.

"Another 5 points for continuing to stand"

The Slytherin students immediately took their seats knowing that Snape must be furious to take points away from Slytherin voluntarily.

Once all the students were in their seats Snape acted like nothing had occurred and the rest of the class sat in fear of both Harry and Snape. As class continued like normal, Hermione gently put her hand on Harry's thigh and tried to reassure him that everything was alright. The only person who didn't seem to still be frightened was Neville Longbottom, as when he sat down again he sat down next to Harry. Harry could tell that he was still a bit nervous but appreciated that Neville stood by.

The class continued on as it did last time, although much more tense. Harry was actually relieved that everyone seemed to now be paying attention to the lesson and not giving sideways glances at him. He hoped that this would be a success and that he wouldn't be ostracised from the school yet again. It helped that Snape didn't seem to be insulting Harry, well he couldn't after the incident earlier in class.

The class almost seemed to be looking up to Harry and his "superior", as snape called it, stirring form. Harry was even enjoying the end of potions class as he realised time was nearing.

When class ended Harry and Hermione did not know what to expect from the other students, like Lavender, Parvati, Seamus, Crabbe, and Goyle left immediately, while others stayed outside the room to see what Harry said.

Harry went outside the room to see Hermione and some others waiting.

Immediately Harry noticed that Ron was also standing there with some others.

"Blimey Harry! Your snake coulda' killed me. I can't believe you got sorted into Gryffindor! You're as Dark as You-Know-Who. How didn't you get sorted into Slytherin!" said Ron, and the remaining Gryffindors who left.

Neville stayed, apologised about how they were treating him, and then left in a different direction to all of his housemates.

"What species of snake is that anyways? Dads never spoken about any snake looking like that" said Draco Malfoy curiously.

"Draco, how can you not see that it's a magical snake" answered Daphne Greengrass.

"I think I've read about these before, Horned Serpent right? They're really rare from what I read." answered Hermione acting like she was just as surprised as the others.

"It's a shame your housemates from Gryffindor don't seem to like her, if you're having problems at lunch, you can always sit with me. I think Draco would accompany us as well. I wouldn't worry about any Slytherins bothering you when word gets out that you speak parseltongue."

"That's okay, I think i'll just be sitting with Hermione" Harry answered politely.

Draco was about to say something, which Harry expected to be an insult against Hermione, when Percy came around the corner with Ron by his side.

Only Draco and Hermione could see Percy and Ron turn around the corner. Percy was holding his wand furiously when Hermione palmed her secondary wand, she had no idea that Draco palmed his wand alaso. When Percy neared the group Harry noticed where Hermione was looking and also palmed his original wand.

"How dare you bring that creature to school with you! That pet is not allowed on these premises and I will have to take you to McGonagall immediately."

Percy raised his wand and began to mutter a spell which Harry couldn't hear. Harry immediately reacted by shouting 'Protego'. As the shield deflected the red curse into the wall. Harry immediately stopped the shield charm and muttered 'Stupefy'.

While Percy was still falling Harry levelled his wand to Ron, who was also about to raise his wand. Harry was almost curious as to what Ron would cast against him when Hermione shouted "stupefy" and Ron dropped to the floor.

Draco and Daphne had their wands raised but were stunned as they could not believe the level with which Harry and Hermione had cast their spells.

"Oh we learned those spells while reading ahead in the textbook. Have you and Draco not read ahead?" Hermione asked innocently, trying to downplay their knowledge of dueling.

"No Granger we haven't" answered Draco in a mildly annoyed tone, although much better than Hermione had come to expect from Draco.

"That was amazing spellwork Hermione and Harry!", Daphne exclaimed.

"You guys will easily be the most talented in our year. Draco, drop that face. You know there are exceptions to every rule, even your fathers..".

Although Daphne did not expect Harry and Hermione to get the reference of blood purity, they did. They were also secretly ecstatic when Draco actually apologised.

While Draco was finishing his apology, Professor Flitwick and McGonagall ran around the corner of the hallway.

"What has happened here? Who did this?" McGonagall practically shouted.

"I'm so sorry professors, but when I saw the prefect level his wand and mutter a curse. I reacted the way the textbooks said I should. I casted my strongest proteo, which I read about in the defense textbook, then cast stupefy, which the textbook said would stop the aggressor." Harry explained, in the most shameful tone he could muster.

"It is my fault too professors… After Harry protected himself against our Prefect, I saw Ron look furious and point is wand at Harry. I was so scared that he might hurt Harry because he knows more spells than us, you know? After growing up with magic for his whole life I thought he might cast something that would hurt us. I did my best to replicate the spell that Harry cast and it worked against Ron as well."

"Ms. Granger, Mr. Potter, do you really think that Percy, the Gryffindor Prefect, would really have hurt you?" asked Professor Flitwick, shocked by the accusations the kids were making.

While they were explaining that he shot a red spell at them, McGonagall was reviving both Ron and Percy. The second she revived Percy, both Weasleys immediately started raising their voices at Harry and Hermione.

"You dare cast against us unprovoked! Now that Professors McGonagall and Flitwick are here, you will be rightfully punished. I think that you will deserve it when the Ministry snaps your wands"

"There will be no wand-snapping here Mr. Weasely. Now tell me why exactly you were here in the first place."

"I heard from my brother, Ron, that Harry Potter had nearly killed him when he spoke parseltongue to an enormous snake during potions. I immediately set out to stun the dangerous beast, and Harry Potters snake to bring to you" answered Percy cockily.

McGonagall turned to Flitwick and the other students, and answered in a sullen tone "Im very sorry that you were already attacked by an upperclassmen, prefect, and for some of you, a member of your own house. I only see it right to reward all of you 5 points, and an extra 10 points for well done wandwork. You may head to your next classes while I deal with my rogue student and prefect."

As they were leaving they heard Flitwick call out to them "Thirty points to Ms. Granger and Mr. Potter for reading ahead"

Harry and Hermione said goodbye to Draco and Daphne, then headed to their next class.

"So Harry, you saw that Draco was more polite this time round right?"

"How could I miss him not insulting you this time? I just couldn't believe that Percy really tried to hex us."

"Yeah, I mean I remember him being a bit, annoying, but there was never anything like this."

They arrived to the great hall for lunch and were surprised to see some of the Gryffindors had saved them seats. They noticed that Neville had saved them seats across from Fred and George, who were joking around with Neville.

The second they saw Harry they jumped out of our seats.

"It's nice to" George piped

"Meet you finally" Fred piped

"The only ones who"

"Could get our annoying brother"

"Sacked from his prefect duties"

"We would also like to see your snake… it sounds cool" George said


	8. Marauders, Map, and M-bullies

**My exams are coming up pretty soon so idk if ill post much between now and my xmas break. I might just work on plot as the previous chapters were just written from my head in order to lengthen the story. Thanks for all the nice comments and enjoy. Word Length is short as there is a lot of dialogue.**

 _Harry had just sat down at the Gryffindor table next to Neville and across from Fred and George. He isn't exactly sure how much the twins know about Percy and what happened with the badge, but he is sure that they won't mind it too much. Hermione was too occupied about thinking about the consequences of Percy losing his badge._

"So how bout that snake Harrykins?"

"Yeah I heard that the prank was a massive success"

"Umm. It's not exactly a prank, per say. The only pranksters I can think of were my parents and their friends. You might've heard of them", Harry looked down trying to act like he would not know the reaction " I think they called themselves The Marauders. You probably haven't heard of them though."

Fred and George looked at each other trying to contain all the extreme excitement they were feeling at once. "Uh. Um… Harry. Can we talk to you outside somewhere."

"Anywhere but here really."

"Sure guys, but I really have no idea what you're on about

I think Hermione can come, I trust her alot. Anything you say to me can be said to her. Isn't that right Hermione."

Hermione was currently talking to Neville about his toad Trevor, she just nodded and then continued on her conversation.

"We aren't sure that's for the best Harry, she is a little bit of a teachers pet"

"What did you just say about me!" Hermione said while making a sudden turn towards the twins "I'll have you know that I like that'' Hermione laughed. She had already decided that it would be best to just accept that she was partly bookworm, and should not be offended when people point out the obvious. She did think, however, that she could scare Fred and George whenever they would mention it.

"Well when you put it that way"

"It's probably for the best that you do come, you might be able to"

"Oh George I do believe that they will be able to find some good ol' broom closets using it"

Fred laughed and got out of the seat with George. They headed outside the hall while Harry and Hermione waited so nobody realised that they were leaving with the twins.

A few minutes after they left they decided to head out of The Great Hall, when they walked through the door they saw Fred and George usher them into an enclave along the wall.

The twins were acting really nervous and hurried them deeper into the enclave.

"Okay we've just retrieved this from our super secret hiding spot."

"Fred I told you it should just be called our trunk."

"Right you are George, we've just retrieved this from our super secret hiding spot, and we think that it's only right we give this to you. However this is provided that you let us use it for our most ambitious pranks yet."

"Guys, Of course we will. We are just lucky we mentioned what we did… Not that we even know what you're talking about" Hermione added

"Oh right, of course. We are referencing the one and only"

"Marauders Map"

"And that is?" Harry and Hermione

"Only the best"

"Most amazing"

"Thing that you could imagine"

"And no Harrykins we aren't referencing Hermione"

Harry blushed but didn't say anything to the twins to encourage the teasing, he was also wondering how Hermione felt about it and decided that he would ask her later.

"Its a map with the locations of everyone inside of Hogwarts. No mistakes and constantly updating"

"Its literal magic, as you muggleborns would call it"

"We still want to see your snake though, so show us yours and we'll show you ours." Fred winked and Harry did his best not to laugh while also doing his best to avoid Hermione's glare.

"Hera dear you can would you come out now please?"

Hera uncoiled from Harry's neck and slid down his arm then into Harry's palm. She was still in her smallest form so she fit into his palm nicely.

"Bloody hell, Ron really did exaggerate the size of her"

"Oh you, he really didn't. It's a she by the way, her name is Hera"

On cue Hera immediately started growing until she was absolutely massive once again. She was coiled but the twins had no doubt that Ron was not exaggerating when describing her size.

Fred gulped "Is sh-I mean Hera poisonous, venomous, anything else there is?"

"Actually that's a good question, I never really thought to ask"

" _Are you poisssonousss or venomousss? You never thought to mention it"_

" _You never asssked. I actually am both poisssonousss and venomousss."_

Fred and George were almost shaking in fear when Harry spoke parseltongue, but while Harry was transfixed on speaking to Hera, Hermione quickly said "Do not antagonise him because he was born with it"

Fred and George both nodded, thinking that Hermione was right, and it's not his fault that he was able to speak parseltongue

"Umm actually guys, she said she was both poisonous and venomous, I didn't ask any further cause I really don't want to know if there's more"

"Okay well you can put her away then"

"Please"

"We will show you ours now I guess Harry"

"Yeah Harry and Hermione you're our first"

"Here it is"

"Fred, George, you realise it's just blank parchment right?"

"Oh dear, Fred what do you think? Should we show them this impeccably crafted piece of magic"

"I do believe it is our duty now George"

"Okay you guys, put your wand to the parchment and say that you solemnly swear that you are up to no good"

Harry and Hermione both put their wands to the map and repeated the words. As the map opened Harry was Surprised to see that Ron and Seamus were actually in the third floor corridor. Fred and George also seemed to notice and sighed to one another.

"Snape is coming around the corridor"

"Best not to intervene Id say, people in Gryffindor have been saying that it's a challenge but personally I don't believe it."

"Yeah we went there and saw an absolutely giant three-headed dog, and you best believe that we are not kidding around"

"Not now anyways"

"Do you guys have hard feelings after we got your brother in trouble? Honestly we didn't mean to…" Harry asked meekly

"Of course not,"

"Prat had it coming after he ratted on us"

"Mom never would have realised that we were gone if it hadn't been for him".

"Anyways do we get to keep the map unless you need it for your pranks?" Hermione asked, trying to stay on topic.

" It could be really useful when we are hiding in broom closets, right Harry"

"Of course it would be", Harry responded before realising what was actually said. He immediately turned a deep red, while Fred and George were cracking up.

"Nice joke there teachers pet"

"Looks like this one has a long leash"

"It's time to head George, hallways clear."

"Have fun in here with your girlfriend Harrykins"

Fred and George blew them kisses goodbye, and honestly Harry and Hermione already missed their company.

"I wish we talked to them more during our first time around"

"Yeah honestly they are the best."

"We actually have the map now, so I think we will be able to put some plans into place. I really want to go through Quirrel's quarters. He might have some useful items lying around."

"That's pretty risky Harry, he probably put some very high security wards around it, I mean I'm not sure it would be wise for me to risk taking them down while we go in there."

"I guess you're right, but when we get rid of Quirrel this time around then we should immediately search his office. I'm not even sure someone checked it last time. Dumbledore probably did, but you know he wouldn't tell anyone about it."

"That's true as well. Have you started thinking about what we should do for the years. I was thinking that we should lay low until the overall serious matters begin. This year and next year really aren't that important"

"Oh my god I just had the best idea. In the chamber during our battle with Quirrel. You should hide under my invisibility cloak with a camera. Then we could use that as solid proof for his new body."

"Harry it's too early now to do that, but I guess that we could keep the photos for a while. That could work pretty well I'd say."

"I know it's only been a few days but I really want to get Sirius out of Azkaban, we are at school now so it shouldn't be a problem"

"Fine Harry, if that's what you want, then I will send the letter today. We only just arrived at school so it might be better if we just wait."

"No. I cannot stand the thought of Sirius rotting in the cell."

"It's okay Harry, and you know it's not your fault." said Hermione empathetically.

"It's not my fault he is there in the first place, but look me in the eyes and tell me that he isn't in there right now because of me"

"Harry you know it's for the the greater good"

"Greater good? Greater good! Are you kidding me? You are beginning to sound like Dumbledore Hermione. Did you forget that we are actually trying to prevent suffering this time around?"

Harry walked out of the enclave and left the now hurt Hermione to her own thoughts.

"I'm not actually turning into Dumbledore, am I?

He can't really think that, yeah. He just said it because he is hurt about Sirius.

I mean he wouldn't say that otherwise right, he knows I'm not like Dumbledore.

He is just a bit hurt that he couldn't help Sirius any faster than he is now.

I'll still send the letter tonight I guess. I'm sure it will all be cleared up tomorrow. It will be fine after I explain it to him." Hermione also left the enclave and immediately bumped into Crabbe and Goyle.

She was caught off guard and tripped as she bumped into them. She was picking herself up off the floor when Crabbe pushed her back to the ground.

"Don't get up mudblood, you wont like what happens"

"And never speak to Malfoy again. He's too good to be wasting his time with the likes of you"

Hermione was going to reach for her hidden wand when Goyle kicked her in the side of the stomach. She could feel the impact of his foot ricochet through her younger body and wasn't sure the internal damage that his foot would cause. She was thankful that the kick was the end of it, and that they were both basically squibs who couldn't do anything magically. Crabbe knocked her out with his fist and moved her back into the enclave she was originally hiding in. He then immediately left with Goyle to the Slytherin Common Room.

They were planning on telling their parents how they put a mudblood back into her place after she was talking with Draco Malfoy and Daphne Greengrass.

Hermione woke up a few hours later in the Hospital wing, and could barely remember what happened.


	9. Loners, Letters, and Bone Breakers

**Exams next week… yeet. I'll be posting a lot more once Im done with them. Merry Christmas, or HaPpY hOlIdAyS if you want to get offended.**

 _Hermione had just woken up in the infirmary with a booming headache and very little memory of what happened. She remembered hearing Draco's name being said, but only remembers two people being there. She would've guessed Crabbe and Goyle on the orders of Draco but now she wasn't really sure. She really did think that Draco was getting better, but couldn't help shake the feeling that it was only him._

Hermione was trying to get out of bed when Madam Pomfrey rushed to her.

"Are you feeling better? Do you remember what happened?"

"No Ms, I think I must've fallen and hurt myself"

Madam Pomfrey looked at Hermione wearily and said "That was quite the fall to damage both the side of your stomach, and back of your head. In my guess, I thought you had been physically attacked by older students."

"No Madam Pomfrey, I remember tripping into the enclave and I hit my stomach on the fall, and head on the way down."

"Okay dear, I believe you. The injuries were minor but as it's after curfew, I'll have to keep you in for the rest of the night. I'll set an alarm to wake you up a bit earlier so that you can get to your room before the other students even notice you're gone. Have a good night rest now dear."

Madam Pomfrey got up from Hermione's bedside and closed the curtains around her bed. Immediately the candle on her bedside went out and she was prepared to go to bed. She was exhausted but knew that she would be able to talk to Harry tomorrow. She knew that Harry wouldn't be mad at her after hearing what happened but felt bad that she never got to send the letters. She knew he was right about it being her fault, but didn't think it was fair that he compared her to Dumbledore. This time they would actually know what was happening, and it truly would be for the greater good. She closed her eyes and fell asleep nearly instantly.

Hermione was woken by the sound of the alarm going off. She wondered what time Madam Pomfrey set the alarm for, but nonetheless got out of bed and immediately cast a refreshing charm on herself. When she felt ready she opened the curtains and went to walk out of the infirmary, Hermione looked around and noticed that there was nobody else in the infirmary. She thought it was odd as she had come accustomed to people filling the rows of beds. She was reminded of what was yet to come.

She exited the infirmary and walked to the grand staircase so that she could quickly get to the Gryffindor dorms. She was out of breath as she reached the common room.

It was really early and nobody had been downstairs yet, she noticed somebody had slept on the couch and realised it was Harry.

She walked over and saw that he looked pretty anxious in his sleep. She shook him by the shoulder and he woke up with a startle.

"What happened? Where were you? Are-are you okay?" Harry immediately asked concerned.

"Harry it's okay I'm alright. I don't really remember what happened but I woke up in the infirmary. Madam Pomfrey said that she suspected I was attacked by older, I'm assuming she meant bigger, students."

"What! Who would dare attack you! Why didn't you fight back?" Harry asked furiously.

"Harry, I really don't know, I don't remember it at all. The only thing I remember is hearing Draco's name being said. I don't think that he was there, but merely a warning from other Slytherins to stop talking to him."

"Was it Crabbe and Goyle?" asked Harry under his breath

"Umm… I think it most likely was, they probably did it as a warning to stay away from Draco, I am hoping its without his consent anyways."

"They're dead Hermione. They can't survive doing that to you, it's my fault I left you and they could've done much worse." Harry whispered seethingly.

"Harry don't you dare say that! It's not your fault and there is no way we are killing them."

"Hermione before you say anything more, let me make it very clear I will not compromise with anything less than a very strong bone-breaking curse"

"Fine Harry but nothing that lets our identity be known. I thought about what to write for Sirius, I'll write it now and we can head to the owlery before anyone comes down.

 _Hermione wrote a letter addressed to Amelia Bones, outlining the details of the situation._

 _ **Hello Ms. Bones,**_

 _ **I have greatly important information regarding Sirius Black.**_

 _ **I have definitive proof that Sirius Black is innocent, however I will firstly address the mistakes the ministry made while reviewing his case.**_

 _ **First mistake is that his case was never actually reviewed, because there was no trial for Sirius Black. No public or private trial for the last remaining heir to the Black Family, disgraceful.**_

 _ **Second mistake is that Sirius was not the Potter secret keeper, he cared too much about James and Lily to let them choose him as the obvious secret keeper. He was vocal about him being chosen so that nobody would suspect Peter Pettigrew as the real secret keeper.**_

 _ **Third mistake while reviewing this case, is blatantly assuming that because a finger of Pettigrew was there, that he was murdered by Sirius along with the muggles. Especially without verifying what happened using Veritaserum.**_

 _ **There is however definitive proof that Pettigrew is alive, he is an unregistered Animagus, just like Sirius and James. He is a rat animagus, which I think suits him perfectly. He is however alive and living under the nose of a family belonging to The Order. Do you not think it is a coincidence that the rat in their family has lived long past the lifespan of a common garden rat. Oh and he also happens to be missing one of his claws. In my opinion this is fairly suspicious. Hopefully you will investigate this issue, or at least give Sirius a trial.**_

 _ **Hope you use this information wisely,**_

 _ **Goodbye.**_

"Okay Harry that seems good, short, and concise. We should head to the owlery and mail it now before many people come down and see us here."

 _They both headed to The Owlery and unbeknownst to them they would be meeting Crabbe and Goyle._

They were climbing the stairs of The Owlery, and were excited to send the letter to Amelia. They were wondering how fast Amelia would get the issue sorted, or if she would even be able to sort it.

"Do you think that we should have told her that there were high ranking ministry officials who were involved in the cover up."

"No Harry, I am sure that she will operate with discretion, and that we have nothing to worry about. I just can't wait to see him again, and I know you are absolutely dying to see him again. Literally dying to see him again" Hermione smiled.

"Haha, okay send the letter off and we can head off."

Harry and Hermione spent some time with Hedwig, and tried to apologise that they couldn't use her to send the messages, as she is too recogniseable of an owl.

"I'm sorry girl, we just can't use you. Somebody might see you and realise that it was us who sent the letter."

Hedwig was okay with the arrangement after Harry and Hermione had offered her owl treats.

Hedwig, being an owl has superior hearing. She was able to hear their footsteps coming up the stairs and immediately began flapping her wings in the direction of the door.

It took a few seconds to realise just what Hedwig was referencing but once they did they immediately cast muffliato on themselves and went to the edge of the owlery.

They waited for a minute in silence when they began to hear the footsteps and talking from the people coming up the stairs.

Once Crabbe and Goyle reached the top of the stairs with matching letters and bragging about which one got the best hit on Hermione, Harry had almost made himself visible. Instead he took out his special wand and cast a silent disillusionment spell on Hermione and him. Hermione got the message and took out her wand as well.

Harry silently counted down from 3 and cast stupefy at Crabbe, while Hermione cast Stupefy at Goyle. Harry said to Hermione that he would take the letter from Crabbe, and that they should leave as soon as possible.

Hermione and Harry were about to walk down the owlery steps when Harry turned back and cast two bonebreakers at the defenseless Crabbe and Goyle.

"Just making sure is all" Harry smirked at Hermione and headed down the Owlery Steps with her.

They had arrived back to their common room, but were still disillusioned. They headed into the stairs for the dorms and just went a bit out of sight, they each ended the spell and walked out into the common room from opposite sides. There were some people sitting in the common room so Harry and Hermione tried talking to the students, but it seemed like most people weren't interested in talking to them. Probably because of Hera who was still wrapped around Harry's neck, but not actually visible.

They still felt like Harry would be ostracised until he played on the Quidditch team, that worked wonders getting Harry accepted in the last timeline. Harry would also be alot better at quidditch this time, but he wondered if he would still be brought up to the Gryffindor team. He wasn't sure how we would get on the team if Draco didn't take Neville's remembrall.

He knew that he would have to come up with a solid plan, hopefully Hermione would help him.

Before they headed into The Great Hall, Harry and Hermione went into a corner where nobody could see them and began to cast as many first year spells as they could manage, so that if they were suspects, their wands would be tested to have only common first year spells. This was not that important as they attacked Crabbe and Goyle using their unknown wands, but only solidified the idea of them being innocent first years who work hard and practice their spells.


	10. Trial, No Trial, and yet to be Trial

**Hey, I might have passed out while reading this. On an UNRELATED NOTE, I believe I ate way too much at Christmas Dinner. Also unrelated note, the best christmas present is a follow on instagram (Dylanfordey); provided you don't enjoy being super-duper ungrateful.**

 _Harry and Hermione both finished casting the first year spells. They entered into The Great Hall to a large commotion._

Harry and Hermione just entered into The Great Hall to see a livid Professor Snape in an intense argument with Professor McGonagall and Headmaster Dumbledore.

They were able to see The Headmaster nonchalantly dismissing Severus, but Professor McGonagall looked fairly weary. She looked as if she was about to collapse, but Harry and Hermione had no idea why. Their argument was clearly silenced to those outside, but that didn't help the commotion outside when they both entered the hall.

Immediately older students from The Slytherin table got out of their seats and grasped their wands in their hands, they made their way over to Harry and Hermione as discreetly as possible. Thankfully, the older Gryffindor students, showed loyalty to the younger students, as they also got out of their seats and headed to intercept The Slytherins who were making their way over.

Harry looked at Hermione wondering if they had been caught for the attack on Crabbe and Goyle, instead of getting an answer from Hermione, Harry found one as he quickly sat down next to Fred and George.

Fred and George looked pale, and were only glancing in their direction. They didn't even acknowledge that they sat down next to them. Instead Fred whispered under his breath to Harry and Hermione

"Crabbe and Goyle were found, unconscious, and almost dead; people think it was you and Hermione. How can't they after Crabbe and Goyle were allegedly bragging about leaving Hermione unconscious in a hallway."

After they finished their explanation Fred and George promptly stood up and left The Great Hall.

Harry and Hermione were then bombarded by questions from their fellow Gryffindors.

"Did you really get them with your snake Harry? Stupid Slytherins deserved it anyways." they heard from Ron.

"I heard that you fought off Mr. Filch, while you were defending yourselves too"

"Which one is it Hermione? You were there too, weren't you?"

"We have no idea what you guys are talking about, Harry and I had just heard about what happened from Fred and George. Honestly we have no idea what happened." Harry answered

"Sure Harry", Seamus winked "you really are The-Boy-Who-Lived".

As Seamus finished his sentence, Harry and Hermione's names were called by Dumbledore through the Sonorus charm.

"Would Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger please meet me in my office in 10 minutes," with that statement Harry saw Dumbledore leave the stage to a fuming Snape and McGonagall.

With that both Snape and Mcgonagall also left in separate directions, clearly doing their best to avoid each other. After Snape and Minerva both left, Harry and Hermione decided it would be best to leave now so that they could be early to Dumbledore's office.

They left The Great Hall with further stares from students and were delighted when they saw Neville walking down the steps of The Grand Staircase.

"Hey guys, I just want to let you know that I believe you. I don't think you're the ones who left Crabbe and Goyle like that in the Owlery. I was the one who found them after all, and I know you guys were not already down in the common room"

"Thanks Neville I really appreciate it. We also have no idea how to cast the bone-breaking curse. We come from muggle families remember? Anyways Nev thank you. I'll see you in class"

As Neville walked away Hermione nearly hit Harry upside the head.

"Harry are you stupid? Nobody told us that it was a bone-breaking curse, Neville wouldn't even have known himself and he is the one who found them."

"Oh god Hermione you're right. But hey, at least I didn't make that mistake while we are talking to Dumbledore. I'll actually remember that I have to act like we have as little knowledge as possible.

 _Harry and Hermione had just arrived at the entrance to Dumbledore's office and the statue slid across, letting them into the narrow stairway. They continued up the stairs until they were in front of the wooden door that is outside The Headmaster's Office._

The door swung open and they were greeted by a smiling Dumbledore, who ushered them calmly inside of his office. Hermione and Harry both made a show of how they were captivated by the different bits and bobs that were lying throughout his office. They noticed Professor Snape standing near the back of the office, and Professor McGonagall standing next to Fawkes, who was roosting. Fawkes was quite uninterested in the people around him, as he was pruning his feathers and not looking around. Professor McGonagall broke her attention off of Fawkes, and told both Harry and Hermione to sit in the chairs across from Dumbledore.

Professor Snape walked from the back of the class, "Okay Well now is as good a time as any to start, unless you are going to continue to try and scare them Minerva. So Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger, are you responsible for the incident with Mr. Crabbe and Goyle."

"No sir, we aren't even sure what happened."

"Minerva does that not satisfy you, I told you that they are both responsible students who I trust. They gave you their answers. Should I dismiss them now Headmaster?"

Dumbledore smiled at Harry and Hermione and briefly glanced at both. Harry accidentally locked eyes with Dumbledore, and could feel him trying to use Legilimency, which he easily blocked. Harry and Hermione both noticed how taken aback Dumbledore was.

Dumbledore immediately looked Hermione in the eyes so that he may get a clear picture, but was even more shocked when he was also blocked by the muggleborn first year. He made sure to star this in his notes, and be sure to collect a memory of it.

"Well. Umm. Severus I do believe you are right and that they are both innocent in these crimes. I am sorry to have wasted your times Mr. Potter and Ms. Gran-"

Before Dumbledore could finish The Floo erupted in flames.

"Hello Albus, this is Amelia Bones, I am requesting access to come through with 4 aurors."

"Amelia, surely this is not about today, there were no major injuries and an investigation is taking place. Not to mention these are minors under my authority, therefore not liable to the punishment of The DMLE"

"Albus, I can assure you that I have no idea what you are talking about, and these students are under your authority not mine. I am not here for any student, but am merely looking into the case of a past pupil."

"Amelia may I inquire who this former student is?"

"No Albus you may not, and I heavily suggest you let me through before I charge you with impeding an active DMLE investigation."

"You may come through Amelia, but I would like Professor Snape to accompany you during your time here."

"I will allow that Albus" Amelia said as she stepped through the floo, closely accompanied by the 4 aurors. Harry recognised Shacklebolt, auror-in-training Tonks, and Mad Eye Moody who was missing one or two scars.

"Amelia is there really need for such qualified aurors. Alastor, what is the meaning of this?"

"Sorry Albus, I'm under oath for this mission. You may follow us as well while we search the castle."

"I will accompany you wherever is necessary."

Albus gestured to Harry and Hermione and said "Ms. Granger, Mr. Potter, you may head back to your dormitories."

When Harry's name was heard it attracted the attention of those in the room, so Harry decided to be brazen and politely responded "Thank you Headmaster, I do hope you are able to find the people responsible." with that both Harry and Hermione exited through the door of the chamber.

"Harry! They're here for Pettigrew, we have to get down to the dormitory before they do. We need to make sure he can't escape"

"I just can't believe they got here so fast; I really did not think they would be this fast and efficient. They must really be taking it seriously to have brought Mad Eye as well. I really think we should continue with the letters if they are willing to listen."

"You're right, but let's go. I really don't want to miss this." Harry said while running ahead to get back to the dormitory as quickly as possible. On the run back Harry nearly went head first into so many collisions, but luckily it seemed like nothing could stop him. He made it to the Gryffindor portrait where he waited the few seconds for Hermione to catch up with him.

"Okay let's go. The portrait swung open, Harry and Hermione nonchalantly walked into The Common Room where they pretended to talk. They asked Fred and George where Ron was because they wanted to apologise. Fred and George were both surprised and told them that Ron was just in his dormitory.

Harry immediately went up to The Dormitory, leaving behind Hermione. He reached the door to the entrance, and saw Ron talking with Seamus Finnegan.

"Hey Ron, Hey Seamus. I heard people talking about Quidditch, and I was a bit embarrassed because I don't know anything about it. I know both of you are mad into it, and was hoping that you could tell me about it."

"Sure Harry" Seamus said

"At least you're asking us I suppose. Are you hoping to make the team next year Harry?" Ron asked smirking "You know its not as easy as you think?"

"I didn't say it was easy Ron I just want to learn about it is all. I heard Chudley Cannons were pretty good… do you guys know anything about that?"

"You've got some good taste Harry!" Ron practically shouted in glee. "Sit down and I'll tell you everything I know" as Ron said this Harry looked around and saw Scabbers in his cage.

"I like your pet Ron, do you mind if I hold it while you tell me. I normally learn better when I get to pet an animal. Haha weird Ik, but I would like to learn as much as possible."

"Umm. Okay Harry, but Scabbers is a bloody moron so don't expect him to learn anything"

Ron reached and picked up Scabbers, then quickly dumped him in his lap. Harry took Peter in his hands and held onto him,ready to hold him tight when the aurors walked in.

Harry participated in the conversation and asked all the same questions that he asked last time, and even added things he remembered Ron said was important. He was actually enjoying the conversation when the door burst open behind him. His grip immediately went Iron tight around Pettigrew, and Harry turned around to face all the aurors staring them down with wands out.

"Where's that rat?!" Mad Eye asked harshly

"Th-th-this one?" Harry asked frantically, acting like a scared child while the aurors aimed their wands at him.

He handed Peter, who was struggling as much as possible in Harry's hand. Pettigrew even bit Harry's hand which caused Harry to flinch, but not let go of his grip. He held the yelp he wanted to give, and gave Mad Eye the rat.

Mad Eye Immediately stupefied the rat, to the chorus of outrage flying out of Ron's mouth.

"Thats MY rat! How dare you!" he shouted, trying to get the attention of the seasoned auror.

Amelia came from behind Moody

"Is this the rat?"

"Yes Amelia, he has been knocked unconscious, and is ready for the counter-curse."

Ron was beginning to get frantic as he saw Amelia level the wand at Scabbers, but immediately went quiet as she cast the spell; Scabbers began to grow into Peter Pettigrew, and every auror, along with Snape and Dumbledore were shocked beyond comparison. They watched as the presumed dead Order of Merlin winner was lying unconscious in front of them.

"Amelia what is the meaning of this?" Albus asked frantically, trying to garner control of the situation once more.

"This Albus is Peter Pettigrew, The Secret Keeper for the Potters, murderer of innocent muggles, and unregistered animagus. We came here on the lead of an anonymous tip which incased details of Pettigrew, and details on the Unlawful Imprisonment of Sirius Black," Amelia glanced at Harry "The Godfather of young Harry Potter, and Head of House Black. He is being brought back from Azkaban at this moment, and all charges against him will be dropped after a public hearing under Veritaserum, not that it matters after we have just captured Pettigrew."

The Aurors removed Pettigrew in chains, to the bewilderment of the students that they passed, as many had seem memorial pictures of Pettigrew, who had been crowned a hero by the ministry.


	11. Seekers, Snitches, and Stitches

**Normally I can bang these chapters out pretty quickly, this took me nearly 4x as long to write… Oof nearly 4 hours of me typing and erasing really tickled my tail feathers. At least its longer than my normal chapters. Oh and I got the HP books for Xmas so I'll try to read them all before I go back to school. I'm also trying to learn some more punctuation. Also as I'm writing this, I personally don't think my description is graphic but I am not sure what you guys will think (I won't spoil but I think you will know what I'm referencing after reading it)**

 _Peter Pettigrew was being dragged through the halls of Hogwarts, paraded around by the aurors for all the students to see. Amelia, knowing that the students would write to their parents, wanted to make it very clear that Pettigrew was a criminal; hopefully helping the stigma that will surround Sirius Black once he is released._

Harry was still ecstatic from earlier in the day when Pettigrew was shown in front of the whole school, to which there was no doubt that it would be the Headline of the Daily Prophet tomorrow and many more times over the coming weeks. He was heading to Transfiguration with Neville and Hermione, and wanted to ask Professor McGonagall if she knew whether a First Year could try out for the Quidditch team.

They were the first to arrive in class as only McGonagall and Snape were there.

"Ah Mr. Potter, I see you're early to class. How is your Parselmagic coming along, I would hate for the opportunity to be wasted, after all of the trouble I went through." Snape asked Harry, trying to upset Minerva, who wasn't happy with how much of a Slytherin Harry seemed to be.

"It is going good sir, I read the Parselmagic book with Hera every night, but I've kept myself from trying any of the magic yet. I mean I am a first year, and all of the magic in the book is quite advanced. I think it's mostly Newt Level or higher."

"It's good to see that you're ambitious with your magical knowledge. It never hurts to learn more. I must be going now," Snape turned to Professor McGonagall and half smiled "Goodbye Minerva".

Minerva looked slightly aggravated after her conversation with Snape, but Harry still decided that he would ask her about the quidditch team.

"Umm… Professor McGonagall?"

"Yes Potter?" she answered

"I was wondering why is it that First years are not allowed on the quidditch team."

"Well, it can be quite dangerous for first years to tryout for the quidditch team. Not to mention that there is practically always a better option from an older student." McGonagall answered, knowing what would come next.

"But if there was a first year who was good enough to be on the team, how would they even try out…" Harry asked, trying not to give away the clear intentions of his question.

"Mr. Potter, do you truly believe that you, or any other first year Gryffindor is talented enough to make it onto the quidditch team."

"Professor, I don't mean to sound cocky, but I just would like to try it. I heard my father was a chaser, and I'd like to play the sport as early as possible. I was hoping to try being a seeker, I think that I would be good at it," Harry looked down and answered as quietly as he could that would still let McGonagall hear him "There's not much else that I know about either of my parents, I just hear that they're good people, and I'd like to try and make them proud."

Minerva and Neville looked visibly shaken after The Boy-Who-Lived gave that explanation, even Hermione was a bit distraught, wondering if that was how Harry felt when he first heard about James being a seeker.

Minerva looked around trying to find any other words, she sighed and looked at Harry. She couldn't help but see the resemblance to both James and Lily. Admittedly she caved, "Okay, I'll see if the Gryffindor Captain, Oliver Wood, would mind giving you a tryout."

"Thank you Professor" Harry smiled, as he smiled the first stream of students came into the class. Harry sat down with Neville and Hermione, then learnt the topic of the day with the other students. The lesson went quickly enough, as Harry and Hermione perfectly executed the transfiguration and then helped Neville learn his.

The lesson was over and they were the last to exit class,

"Neville you did great this lesson" Hermione said bubbly.

"Thanks Hermione, but you and Harry are still the two most talented students in our year." he answered.

"I'm sure you'll catch up to us eventually. Harry and I are heading to the library now to study. Would you like to come with us?"

"No thanks, I promised Id help Professor Sprout with some chores. Maybe another time though."

Neville said as he turned away and headed towards Herbology.

"Well it looks like its just the two of us… do you still want to study or should we do something else?" Hermione asked Harry

"I don't really care, I'm okay with going to the library. I can read my Parselmagic book, and I know you still want to study."

"Sounds Perfect"

 _Harry and Hermione were on the way to the library when they see Draco and Daphne facing away from them at the entrance to the library. They continue walking towards the library when Draco and Daphne turn around,_

"Hey guys," Daphne said smiling

"I'm sorry to have heard about your incident Hermione, but at least… karma got them," she giggled.

"I'm just thankful I'm okay. If they were any better at magic I might actually have been hurt." Hermione smiled.

"I think Draco has something to tell you as well. I'm not sure I should be the one to say it for him."

"Oh right. Umm… I'm sorry for what Crabbe and Goyle did to you, they only did it because they heard that we had offered for you to sit with us. They were sending letters to their parents when they were attacked."

"It's not your fault. They're just stupid, there's not much else to say" added Harry.

"Are you guys studying now?" Hermione asked, gesturing towards the library doors.

"No I don't think we will," Draco answered while looking at Daphne "we were just leaving now".

"Okay see you then" Hermione and Harry responded politely

"See you" they chimed as they walked past Harry and Hermione.

Harry and Hermione entered the library and sat in their usual seats. Harry read his book, and Hermione made a revision plan for the tests. They didn't need to study for much subjects, but she made the revision plan because some spells were rarely used and easily forgotten. They sat there until right before curfew.

The many students that were there previously now seemed to only be a few Ravenclaw students, Hermione asked Harry if he was ready to go back to the common room and Harry agreed.

They headed to their respective dorms, both excited to see the Daily Prophet for the day ahead; Harry was practically beaming with excitement to see Sirius again, he knew that he would be released soon after the aurors caught Pettigrew.

Harry and Hermione had both woken up and gotten ready for the day ahead. They headed down to the common room so that they could make their way to the Great Hall for breakfast.

They arrived at the Great Hall to see that the students nearly turned the whole hall upside down.

There were students in arguments all throughout the tables, there didn't even seem to be a pattern with who were arguing. Some arguments were between people of the same house, and some arguments were interhouse.

Harry and Hermione quickly caught the Daily Prophet that a 5th year girl threw at a 3rd year boy.

It read:

 **Pettigrew Caught! Sirius Black Innocent?! Order of Merlin Holder Betrayed The Potters.**

The article went on to detail the accounts of yesterday's arrest, and what The Ministry of Magic has released regarding the situation. Harry heard a distant shout "Sirius Black is a murderer! I know he is! My father knew one of the muggles killed!"

They finished reading the article and were shocked that half the students still seemed to think that Sirius Black was the murderer who killed the Potters. Harry was so infuriated that he climbed onto the nearest table and cast the sonorus charm on himself.

"Sirius Black is my godfather. He is innocent - did not betray my parents - and deserves to be respected after spending time in Azkaban. Pettigrew was my parents secret keeper, it was believed to be Sirius because he was the obvious choice. Sirius loved my parents and he loves me. Anyone who believes otherwise is blatantly wrong." Harry shouted to the audience of the hall who were now silent. Once it seemed Harry had stopped, what seemed like half of the hall turned to who they were arguing and said, almost in sync, "I told you so".

Harry climbed down from the table right as the Professors entered the hall, they also seemed to have come out of an argument, and Harry sat down with Hermione for his breakfast. He was joined by Fred, George, and Neville who sat down for breakfast and ate in silence with Harry. Sometimes Fred and George would say something to lighten the mood

"Fred, I cant believe Scabbers was Pettigrew" he visibly shivered "what he must have seen."

Fred paled at the thought and said to George "Don't you ever say that again George, I swear on Merlin's Beard."

Sometimes Neville would chime in asking if they had any homework, but Harry and Hermione could tell that he was just asking to get their minds off of Sirius.

Harry decided that he should change the topic from Sirius, and surprise Fred and George a bit.

"So guys, did you hear I might be trying out for Gryffindor seeker?" Harry said gesturing towards Fred and George.

"Hahaha Harry ya right. We heard that Ron and Seamus were explaining the rules of quidditch to you recently. Do you really think that you can just suddenly become amazing at the sport?"

"Well, I do think that people might have said the same thing about surviving the killing curse." Harry smiled and winked.

"Why don't we get Oliver Wood over and play a little seeker match."

"What do you mean?" Fred and George asked.

"I mean you only release the snitch and I'll catch it before you guys have a chance to score any points".

"You're awfully cocky Harry, let's do it" they said in sync.

Coincidentally, McGonagall had just gotten Oliver Woods attention and they both made their way over to Harry.

McGonagall started the conversation

"So Mr. Potter, are you ready for your quidditch trial, all the other seekers were trialed, and I'm sad to say we are currently disappointed in our lack of skill. If you can somehow prove to be better than the other students, on what I know is your first ever time on a broom, then you deserve the position."

Harry smiled "So are we ready to go" McGonagall nodded and Oliver Wood looked beyond excited.

Hermione, Fred, George, and Neville all walked behind them. They were just as excited to see Harry fly as Oliver Wood was. Everyone but Hermione didn't actually know what to expect, Fred and George had just found out that it was Harry's first time on a broom and were worried that he might actually get injured while trying to catch the snitch.

They arrived on the pitch to find that the Ravenclaw team was just finished training. Oliver Wood thought that now would be a perfect time to put Harry against an actual seeker.

"Hey Professor McGonagall… do you think we could pit Harry against the Ravenclaw seeker now."

"That's a brilliant idea. Ill ask Professor Flitwick if he can spare the seeker."

While Professor McGonagall went to ask Professor Flitwick, Harry was speaking to the group

"So are you excited Harry? I know you've never flown on a broom before." Hermione asked Harry in front of the others.

"Honestly I'm not sure, I just have this sense that I will be good at it"

The others laughed that Harry could be so sure about a feeling that he had, but they didn't say anything as they knew that they would see if it was true in a few minutes.

Professor McGonagall arrived back over with the seeker and was ready to set up.

"Okay Mr. Potter, here is your broom. Show us what you can do"

Harry took the school broom she was offering and shook the hand of the seekers name he didn't know.

"Good luck" they said to each other.

Professor McGonagall released the snitch and the other seeker took off to the top of the pitch so that he could wait to spot the snitch.

Harry put on a show to the students as he pretended he wasn't sure how to use a broom, he went back and forth, and turned upside down, varying speeds. He did about everything that he thought a beginner might do by accident before they had an accident.

"Wait I think I got it!" Harry shouted down to the others.

He immediately sped up and turned towards the other seeker. He stopped next to the Ravenclaw seeker and nodded his head. After a few minutes of waiting there was no sign of the snitch and Harry decided that he wanted to give Hermione a fright.

"I see it!" he shouted "Its right below me"

He dived suddenly, going at a vertical direction, as fast as he could. He couldn't push his broom any faster, and he could hear the other seeker right behind him, the seeker was determined not to lose to the first year, and was hot on his tale. He could see the floor barreling towards him, his body was telling him stop, but his mind was telling him that this had to be the best feint he's ever done. He yanked up on his broom as hard as he possibly could and thought he might snap the poor quality school brooms. He managed to get out of the dive but he literally skimmed along the ground, his feet grazing the grass. He heard the crash of the other seeker and realised the game was finished. He stopped his broom and dismounted it 50m from the crash site and decided to walk there on foot. The Professors were running towards the crash site, and the students, even Hermione were rooted on the spot in awe. They all had white faces as they had just watched someone do one of the most dangerous variations of the ultra dangerous Wronski Feint.

Harry had finally made it to the crash site, he felt sick after seeing what lay there, Professor McGonagall and Flitwick were both telling their patronus' that they needed to send help to the field immediately. The other seeker had shattered her broom into the ground at full speed. There were little pieces of wood littering the crash site, but the problem was the lump under the seekers cloak. Specifically, that the seeker was the lump under the cloak. There didn't even seem to be any distinguishing features that let you know where on the seeker you were looking at. Harry nearly vomited when he realised that it was his fault. He saw that the head of the seeker was extremely bloody and Harry wasn't sure if they were even alive. He had assumed that they were just injured but after seeing the blood pooling around the accident he wasn't sure. He realised what the hidden killer of the accident seemed to be. A large piece of wood from the broom, had embedded itself deep into the side of the other seeker. It made it nearly impossible to discern how far in it went. The whole area was just crimson red, so not much could be said on how to remove it, or if removing it would just injure them more. It would be harder to vanish because it was an enchanted object, and Harry really had no idea what could be done.

The other students had just arrived on the scene and immediately paled.

Neville had to run to the bleachers and get sick, Fred and George just paled and remained silent not knowing what to say or do, Hermione had joined in trying to assess the seeker, telling the professors about their crucial anatomy, and that she would explain the injuries to Madam Pomfrey quickly when she came in order to save time, Oliver Wood just looked shocked. Oliver walked over to Harry,

"Harry, look at me, they will be grand.. but more importantly, The Gryffindor Quidditch Team are more than grand! You're the best seeker Ive ever seen! Even the professionals can't do that with their state of the art brooms! We have the quidditch cup in the bag!".

Harry almost felt better now that his old captain was just as focused on the quidditch season, but couldn't help but hate himself for having to show off and prove himself to those around him. As he was thinking this, Madam Pomfrey came with some older students, and immediately carried the seeker off the pitch. She was already sweating and looked nervous just listening to Hermione.


	12. Episkey, Exculpate, and Eating rock cake

**I'd appreciate if someone defined Viewer vs. Visitor for me. I got the books for Xmas and I just finished them all so... Hopefully you guys enjoy.**

 _Harry was visiting the hospital wing to see how the seeker was doing, he didn't remember her from the last timeline, but still felt bad that she was in critical condition due to a quidditch tryout._

Harry had just arrived in the Hospital Wing to see Madam Pomfrey, Professor Sprout, Professor Snape, Headmaster Dumbledore, and Hermione grouped around the bed that he guessed was the Seeker.

"She is clearly unstable Poppy," Professor Sprout said worryingly "I will get some Herbs that will help with keeping her in a coma. We can't keep using magic because we do not know how that could affect the broomstick still inside her."

"Im telling you, Felix Felicis is necessary. It doesn't matter how much its worth, Ill brew it and then we can do something, you can't just rush into the situation," Snape sneered "Where's Minerva? She can give you house points for being rash and irresponsible. Poppy you know you can't just take it out… we have no idea what it's like inside."

"I know that Severus! There's not much time. She is still bleeding and we are running out of blood replenishing potions. If we don't do this now then we won't be able to do anything at all."

Dumbledore piped up above the crowd frowning " I believe we should wait to inform the parents. It's no use to have them worrying about the condition until it is known what will happen"

Harry saw Hermione finally get the attention of the crowd "Professors please, the muggles have XRays, it will show you how the shrapnel is inside, and it only takes 15 minutes in total. The only problem is that transporting her there would be a problem."

Professor Snape understood what Hermione said "That's a plausible idea, but would you care to tell us how we are able to get her there? We can't apparate, it could kill her, we can't go by floo as its a muggle hospital."

The rest of the group began to argue again, but after a few minutes Harry realised that it was going nowhere, and that they were probably further from finding a solution than they were at the start. Harry watched Dumbledore casually leave, saying how this was not his area of expertise,

Harry knew that all of this was his fault, and decided that now might be a good time to try some of the parselmagic that he read about in his book. He wasn't sure which of the healing spells would be best for the situation. He decided that he would ask Hera once he took her out.

"Professor Snape," Harry said looking at Snape "Madam Pomfrey," Harry said while changing his glance to look at Madam Pomfrey " I think I have a solution. I believe that I would be able to use my parselmagic to stop her from bleeding long enough to vanish the broomstick shrapnel. You can't vanish the broomstick with regular magic, but I think it works with Parselmagic."

Both looked genuinely curious as to what Harry was suggesting, "And it is 100% safe if you aren't able to do it?" Harry nodded and Snape asked,

"What about what you told me? You said that you were too inexperienced to do the magic. We don't need rash Gryffindor thinking right now Mr. Potter"

"It's perfectly safe, and It's not rash. It's one of the easier spells. There doesn't seem to be any better option, and it's my fault in the first place."

Madam Pomfrey looked hopeful and cleared Harry to do what he needed to do. Snape didn't agree and left the room angrily. Hermione just gave a look to Harry that clearly conveyed her feelings, mess up and you will be the one that is dead.

" _Hera wake up. I need your help healing a ssseeker who hasss been injured. They need us to perform parssselmagic."_

Hera uncoiled herself from Harry's neck and slithered along his arm until she reached the bed. She grew to a foot long, and her circumference was only a few inches. She let Harry pick her up in the way that was needed for healing magic. He held her in the palms of his hands, like how somebody would hold a rope.

" _Hera what ssspell ssshould we use? I'm thinking the sssecond one we read would be bessst."_

" _Yesss the sssecond one isss the bessst but it isss alssso mossst complicated"_

" _Itsss my fault we have to at leassst try"_

" _Okay whatever you sssay is bessst"_

Harry got ready to start casting the spell and warned Hermione and Madam Pomfrey to stand back. He wasn't exactly sure what would happen.

Harry closed his eyes and followed the instructions from the book.

He felt his magic radiating from him and let it pour into Hera, he said the words as he had read them " _stercus, Hoc non operatur"_ He felt the magic surge from Hera as she lashed out and struck the seeker with her fangs.

Harry opened his eyes and saw that the Seeker was writhing in the bed, Harry had began to panic but Madam Pomfrey was outraged.

"That dark creature just bit my patient, I need to get her the antidote right now!"

Hermione tried to defuse the situation "It's just part of the spell! There's honestly no need to worry"

"She's convulsing! How could you possibly think she's alright"

"Madam Pomfrey this is Parselmagic Harry is attempting, it's not episkey, and it might not look pretty"

Madam Pomfrey calmed down but Hermione knew that it wouldn't last long, Harry had already put Hera away and looked a bit worn out after the spell.

"Madam Pomfrey," Harry said "She should be okay soon, I talked to Hera and she said that there was a wide range of time it could take to heal her back to full health. Anywhere between a few minutes and a day or two. Even if its takes that long, she will be at full health which is still better than the other options you had. There is honestly no need to worry."

 _Harry had been napping on the couch of the common room, it was silent as nobody wanted to accidentally wake him up. There were rumours going around that Harry was the best quidditch player to come through Hogwarts in centuries. Nobody actually knew if it was true, and the people who saw it weren't saying a word._

Hermione entered the common room and immediately saw Harry sleeping on the couch, with all the Gryffindor students awkwardly standing around the couch waiting for Harry to wake up. Nobody was talking and Hermione almost wanted to laugh, just a few hours after sitting on a broom, Harry had made the whole school love him again, not a single person seemed to have a problem with being in the proximity of Hera.

Hermione wasn't going to wait around for Harry to wake up like everyone else, she walked over there and shook him awake to the horror of all the students around her.

Harry wiped the sleep from his eyes and looked around to see everyone trying to act natural and not look at him. It didn't work that well as everyone was still surrounding the couch.

"Hermione," Harry looked around and made eye contact with as many people as possible "The common room seems a bit crowded, I think we should talk outside".

Harry and Hermione both left the common room and walked towards the school grounds, they passed people in the hallway who asked if it was true but Harry and Hermione just said they weren't sure what the rumours were about and they carried on walking.

"At least it's only a matter of time until Sirius is a free man again" Hermione added to the bleak conversation they were having.

"He will still be just as damaged as he was last time, Azkaban truly broke him"

"That shouldn't matter Harry, he still loves you, your parents, Remus, and all the people he loved last time. He just hasn't had a very good time recently"

"I know but I'm still worried"

"Everything will be okay Harry, we aren't going to lose to Voldemort this time."

"Speaking of Voldemort… what should we do about the Philosopher's Stone, I'm assuming that its still here after the 3rd floor hallway is still off limits."

"We can steal it whenever Harry," Hermione thought to herself for a bit before answering again "I remember the chess moves from last time, I could even brew some more of the potion that Snape had."

"That's great! We could even use it to finance us for The War."

"That's a good idea Harry, but wont you fail the Mirror of Erised portion, if you want to use it?"

"I think it's okay as long as the use for it isn't 'evil' per say" Harry smirked "I wouldn't consider killing Voldemort evil, would you"

"I don't think anyone does"

"Is that the plan then"

"Well the general plan yeah, I would like to have like a headquarters in Hogwarts though. Not like The Room of Requirement, but more like…"

"Woah woah woah, you're not about to say what I think you're going to say."

"Harry The Chamber of Secrets would be a perfect place for it. You know it would be. We could get some help cleaning the place and it might seem a bit homely, and there's nowhere more secure than there."

"How do you plan on cleaning it?"

"Well next year Dobby should be able to help us, and all we have to do is find a rooster. The sword of Gryffindor isn't even needed, although I'm not sure how we could destroy the horcruxes without using fiendfyre."

"That could work, we definitely need to think it over though, where are we headed Hermione?"

"I thought it might be nice to see Hagrid, after all he will have Norbert this year. We need to find a way to smuggle him out of here without Ron-"

"Hermione why can't we just ask Ron for help, or any of the Weasleys?"

"Harry," Hermione said offended " He killed me, why can't you see that I just can't forgive that? I remember what he said to me as well," she shivered " I still can't believe he thought he was doing the right thing."

"Im sorry Hermione, but I think it would be best if you forgave him enough to be beneficial for us"

"Like it or not, The Weasleys are very important to winning the war, and you know it."

Hermione walked a bit faster but Harry knew that she understood his points, and that it would take a while to actually kick in. They continued on to Hagrids house regardless of their argument.

They arrived there to see Snape in the window talking to Hagrid, Harry and Hermione immediately looked at eachother and cast disillusionment charms on eachother

They crept up to the window and listened.

"He's just like his mother, he's good at potions, I might offer to tutor him" he heard Snape say

"Ah, more like James I'd say- good at quidditch' too heard he's the best seen in centuries."

"Well nothing is perfect, he has some of Potter in him, not enough to be a nuisance"

"I must be off Hagrid, make sure not to tell anyone how to pass Fluffly, Dumbledore is trusting you to keep your mouth shut"

Snape left the cottage and walked smoothly up the path, unbeknownst to the two Gryffindors crouching behind Hagrid's shack.

"Did you hear that," Harry said shocked "It sounds like he might get over the fact I'm James Potter's son."

"I definitely do not think that this conversation happened last time, who knows what could happen with Snape if he actually begins to care about you."

"Crazy times we live in," Harry laughed, he stood up and knocked on Hagrids door, Hermione stood with him waiting.

Hagrid opened the door, "Ah, come in, the both of yeh. How are ye?"


	13. I hurted my wrist, I done did typed this

**Had some computer issues but I just had the idea to type this on my phone and then copy and paste it to the desktop version. Can't really check the word count so oof, soz.**

"Hey Hagrid," Harry and Hermione both said pleasantly.

"What's goin on here, gangin up on me are ya?" Hagrid smiled "Its been too long, ye said yer was gonna call down sooner."

"Sorry Hagrid, we've just been so busy. This is my friend Hermione, she's easily the smartest which in The Wizarding Community." Harry said while smirking at Hermione from behind Hagrid as he turned around.

"I think I heard McGonagall talking about ya, smartest witch to come through Hogwarts in a century," Hagrid turned back around "Speaking of the best in years, how come yah never told me ye was a natural flyer. I heard yer even rivaling professionals firs' time on a broom."

"Well I had never actually flown on one before. Of course I didn't think to tell anyone any earlier."

"So Hagrid, how are you? Have you been busy lately, I heard there was something off in the dark forest," Hermione did her best not to act curious "have you seen anything strange?"

Hagrid's cheery smile seemed to darken a bit, "Somethins off alright. Nothing like I've seen before," He seemed to put on a fake smile "Nothing to worry ye, tell me how yer classes are going, I heard you know some special kinda magic Harry. Any chance ye could help teach yer good friend" Hagrid winked.

Harry and Hermione stayed down with Hagrid talking about the interesting stories they have had so far this year. The stories ranged from Percy attacking Harry to healing the seeker. Hagrid was delighted to hear all their stories but was disappointed when they had to leave. Harry and Hermione had made it back to their dorms before curfew, and said goodnight to each other.

They both read their respective books in bed, and Harry was getting more eager, day by day, to try the aggressive parselmagic. He fell asleep contemplating the many ways he could use a wordless blinding spell.

Hermione was also reading her book, but it was outlining the articles of confederation from the first magic society in the United States.

Hermione wondered if Harry had ever been on holiday, decided it probably hadn't been abroad, and wondered if they could go somewhere over the summer.

Harry had just woken up to find that he was awake much earlier than normal, he didn't feel groggy at all and decided to get out of bed. He got dressed in his trunk, and left shortly afterwards. He headed down to the common room, where nobody was, and waited in his favourite seat until Hermione came down.  
He was happy to see that she was the first one to come down apart from Harry, she was even more surprised to see Harry though.

They headed to the great hall and sat down by themselves eating breakfast.  
It was a while before a steady stream of students began to pour in from the main doors, Harry noticed that a lot of the Ravenclaws seemed to be eyeing him warily, but he thought to himself that it was only because they were down so early.

They sat there, while their table steadily began to fill. All of the Gryffindors weren't keeping their space from Harry and actually engaged in conversation with him. It seems even their boycott against Hermione, because she was Harry's friend, seemed to disappear.

Neville was in an engaging conversation about the best plant species to counter a pneumonia, Fred and George were eyeing Katie Bell and Angelina Johnson suspiciously, Oliver Wood was just smiling to himself, and Harry and Hermione were just eating their food happily.

Apart from Ron, Hogwarts seemed just as good as it did before any of the dangerous plots threatened to ruin it for him. He really felt he could enjoy it this time, as they were not in for any new surprises.

The Owls for The Daily Prophet came and everyone was delivered their newspapers, Harry read his and was buzzing the second he read the headline.

" **Sirius Black to be released today!"**

He was even more excited to see that it had an accurate, at least somewhat accurate, account of what happened that night. Understandably there was no mention of Pettigrew hiding with the Weasleys as that might bring public outrage upon them.

Harry was surprised that there was no quote by the ministry of magic, but decided that they'll probably give Sirius some award.

Hardy wondered if the ministry even agreed with the decision, and were forced to release him due to the lack of evidence against him.

Harry was about to mention this to Hermione when he turned and saw her smiling at him.

"What is it Hermione" Harry asked, wanting to be included in the secret.

"Nothing," she smiled a bit brighter "I'm just happy that you will finally get the family you've always wanted"

"I won't let Voldemort take that away from me this time" Harry said while his gaze hardened "Anyways do you know if we had any homework?"

"Yeah we had a load of Charms homework Harry! Oh it doesn't really matter anyways… you can copy mine"

Harry and Hermione spent the rest of the time talking about the best way to complete the homework, and if they would have enough time to go to the bathroom before class started.

 _Harry and Hermione were in their charms class when there was a knock on the door._

Professor McGonagall opened the door to the charms class and stuck her head through the door, "Mr. Potter, would you please join me in the Headmasters office?"

Harry quickly glanced at Hermione, unable to figure out why he had been called.

He followed McGonagall all the way to Dumbledore's office, but was shocked when he saw who was standing there. The matted black hair, thin frame, and sunken eyes, and slightly shaking hands showed a Sirius Harry never wanted to lay eyes on again.

"Sirius! How did you get here so quickly, I saw you were only released today? Professor, Headmaster, would you please mind giving my Godfather and I some time alone?"

Sirius looked surprised to see that Harry knew his name, or that he didn't seem to hate him. He immediately agreed with Harry in order to win his side, "Yes Dumbledore, Minnie, would you please give us some time to ourselves, I believe we have a lot to catch up on" Sirius smiled and excused himself and Harry from the headmaster's office.

"Sirius, I know a great place where we can catch up, I bet you'll love it!" Harry said enthusiastically while leading Sirius to the Room of Requirement.

They entered the room to find a cozy room filled with three arm chairs, a tea set, biscuits, and some rather tasty looking sandwiches. Harry sat down in an armchair but Sirius just seemed to be looking around in awe.

Sirius was shocked that The Marauders had never found this room in all of their time searching Hogwarts castle. He asked Harry as many questions he could think of, but still had no idea how the room worked.

"So Sirius, it took you long enough to escape Azkaban, I really was beginning to think that I'd have to go there myself and break you out"

Sirius laughed "I wish pup, also please call me Padfoot, it's what your dad called me before" Sirius began to choke back his tears, "he and your mother were taken from us".

"Its okay," Harry said soothingly "I know it's not your fault"

"I'm so sorry Harry, I failed you and your parents, and now that Im back im too busy crying. I didn't even remember to ask you whether or not you had a girlfriend" Sirius said smiling weakly.

Harry blushed a tiny bit but knew how he should reply "There's one muggleborn girl I like, people say she's the smartest witch of the century."

"A muggleborn and extremely smart?" Sirius' smile was reaching ear-to-ear "You really are the son of James Potter" Sirius laughed.

"Do you want to meet her, she should be arriving whenever her class finishes. We said that we would meet here when you came to Hogwarts, I think you'll really like her."

"Any girl you like, is a girl I like. I don't have to meet her to know that. Clearly your taste is as good as your fathers."

"You just got out of Azkaban earlier today? Shouldn't you be resting or in the hospital?"

"No pup, I had to see my Godson before I did anything else. Making sure you're okay is the most important thing in my life, do not get it twisted. I am very serious, when I say that I will give my life for you."

"I don't doubt that," Harry said "but thankfully you will never have to. I don't plan on putting myself in danger and hopefully you won't either."

"How are you staying with now Harry; are you with the Longbottoms? You can always stay with me if you'd like…"

"I'm with the Dursleys," muttered Harry "Of course I would like to stay with you! Do you have your own place?"

"Yeah and it's very safe, I might need to do some redecorating this time though, I bet the place is in an awful state," Sirius smiles "and I bet that rotten house elf is still there."

There was a knock on the door and Hermione entered.

Hermione smiled at Sirius and shook his hand. Harry introduced them together and Sirius immediately complemented Hermione and did his best to embarrass Harry. They all talked for a few more hours, they eventually decided that they had been talking long enough and that it was time for Sirius to rest.

Sirius headed home and Harry and Hermione went to the class they were assigned to be at.

The rest of the day went pretty quickly from them both and they ended up going to bed early.

Harry sat in bed and talked to Neville for a while until he felt tired and said goodnight. He drew the curtains around his bed and pulled his trunk from under his bed. He entered his apartment and went to the much larger and comfortable bed in his own bedroom. There he read a few more chapters of the Parselmagic book, and Hera read along with him.

He continued this later into the night than he planned and ended up falling asleep around 3am.


	14. Sirius being extra Serious

**I'm still with some computer issues, I've been typing this in the library but only after I've finished my school work, so I haven't been writing that much. Sorry hopefully it'll be fixed soon. Then I'll be able to post weekly again… Also I've seen some reviews about the relationships between characters and to be fair I'm trying to add a bit of character development between Harry and Hermione, and between Sirius as well.**

Harry woke up in his bed to his alarm clock beeping rapidly. He was already excited for the day ahead, he couldn't be more hopeful that the day ahead could be any better than the last.

He was getting dressed and wondered if Sirius would take Hermione and him out of school for a bit while they helped make Grimmauld Place into their permanent headquarters. First however, they needed to explain their situation to Sirius, and hopefully he won't need much convincing of it being real.

He was excited to finally start deciding on and implementing their plans for the future. Their whole gang will soon be together once Remus comes back, maybe even Tonks will join after a while. It's too bad Hermione wouldn't forgive Ron but Harry knows that trying to build that trust again would be so hard, and current Ron wouldn't even know what he did wrong.

He thought it would be best to just leave it be, being friends with the twins should be enough to get the support of Bill Weasley, who is absolutely vital.

He was a bit disappointed not being able to see Mrs. Weasley, who was almost his adopted mother, but didn't mind not being mollycoddled for all the future summers.

He finished getting ready and exited his trunk, nobody else was awake so he didn't have to worry about anyone seeing him there. He went down to finish his homework and finished it. While he was putting his books back into his bag Hermione walked into the common room.

"Good Morning Harry, you sleep well?" She asked

"Never been better, I've finished the homework for this week already, hopefully I'll get to go away with Sirius. You should come too!"

"Mmmm I'm not sure that's a bad idea, I think McGonagall would allow me to after she sees that I finished all of my homework as well. I mean I don't see why she'd say no if Sirius asks for me to come as well"

"That's perfect, he never said what time he'd be coming though, so we'll probably still have to wait some more."

Hermione sat down next to Harry and they played some wizarding chest, Hermione was getting a lot better as she had been practicing since the start of school. She needed to be get both Harry and herself through the chess game at the end of the year.

She ended up winning over Harry by checkmating his King with her Queen and Castle to Harry's frustration. " Are you going to play Ron again?" He looked away from her " beating him in chess might help get out some of your anger at him".

"Are you kidding me Harry?" Hermione looked upset once more "you know how I feel about him. I want to talk to him as little as possible, not even beating him in quidditch would make me feel any better".

"I understand, I just thought you might like to. Forget it I'm sorry. Anyways I've been thinking, the Weasley twins know the castle better than anyone. Maybe we should explore it as well, I mean they never knew about the room of requirement so maybe they missed something else."

Hermione's annoyance seemed to disappear completely, "That's a great idea Harry, I always thought there must be other passageways throughout Hogwarts. I'd really enjoy searching for them."

"Great! Let's head to the great hall I'm starving I haven't eaten in what feels like forever"

"Same here, I'd kill for a slice of toast. Thank God we will be the first ones there."

They passed the fat lady as she was yawning and shouted behind them saying not to forget the password, they walked down the great stairs to the lower west floor and were happily met by the large door to the great hall. All the years they were at Hogwarts, and they still seemed to get lost in the enchanted roof of the hall. They sat down and were excited to see they were one of the few kids to already get there. They both took their breakfast and sat down happily, Harry was eating his porridge, sausages, and toast while Hermione ate her toast and marmalade with scrambled eggs and bacon. They talked as they sipped on their tea, excited for the day ahead with Sirius. Harry was so happy, this time he had a Godfather, and a girl he felt so close to. She is his lady after all. He didn't things could be much better than they already were.

They finished their meals as the most of the students were entering the hall, and promptly left.

As they were walking out they bumped into Draco and Daphne, "Hey Potter, Granger"

"Hey" both Harry and Hermione replied

"I heard your Godfather was released from Azkaban, my father wants me to suggest for you to ask Sirius to come have dinner at my family home. You would be invited as well, as you would too Hermione."

Harry hesitated for a second but decided to be as polite as possible "That sounds lovely Draco, is there a specific date set?"

"No, we just need to know beforehand so we can invite the others, not last minute as our invitations coming at the last minute might be perceived as rude."

"Thanks, I guess we'll see you then". Draco and Daphne smiled and then continued past them.

"That's odd, don't you think Harry?"

"Fairly suspicious … well lets just take it as Draco not having to join Voldemort again" Harry said jokingly and laughed "I'll take anyone we can get on our side".

They walked to McGonagall's office knowing that they would be called there soon by Sirius. By the time that they reached there they found the door unlocked and headed inside. There they saw Sirius and Professor McGonagall talking and laughing. "Excuse us Professor, we came like Sirius asked yesterday, should we leave now and come back later?" Sirius quickly threw away the idea "Nonsense Harry, Professor McGonagall," He winked at her "were just finishing. Anyways I was told you could leave today as you're both the most advanced students to come in here for years! Even Snape says so" he said enthusiastically.

"So are you both ready to leave? I see you're both wearing your formal robes."

"Yeah let's head off, where is it we are going?"

Sirius hung his head in shame "We are going to Godric's Hollow, there's something I have to show you" Harry and Hermione glanced at each other worryingly, they hadn't expected Godric's Hollow of all places.

"Well time to go, I think we will use your floo Professor, is that okay?"

"Not a problem Sirius, I do hope you'll have them back before curfew"

"Well I do think you should keep hoping," Sirius smiled "Harry, Hermione, repeat after me 'Godric's Hollow' " with that, Sirius went through the floo and they both did the same thing.

They arrived in a dusty old fireplace that must once have been a center for the town. Sirius smiled, "Come, come, I have something to show you" He walked briskly out the door and they both followed. They walked past the desolate houses and came to what must have been Harry's house "Its weird seeing it in the daylight" Harry whispered to Hermione. "Harry, this is your parents house… as you can see, not much is left after the night Voldemort took your parents."

"It seems nice here. I would've liked growing up here" said Harry mournfully "was it always like this, empty?"

"No pup, it used to be vibrant. No it's dead" he looked solemn.

"Follow me, let me show you something," he smiled.

They walked along the neighbourhood street until they reached where Harry had went with Dumbledore.

He looked at the statue and his parents almost seemed younger this time around, they would be the same age he was.

"Prongs, Lil. This is Harry and Hermione." Sirius whispered out of earshot. "These are your parents Harry, my best friends. I'd give my life to have them back. There's nothing more I could wish for you."

"They look so young," Hermione said shocked "I forgot just how young they were…"

"Too young" muttered Sirius "would you like to visit them Harry?"

"Yes"

"Follow me then" Sirius turned and walked towards the graveyard. They continued walking until they reached the gates. Sirius led them quietly to a grave in pristine condition. A fresh lily and some nuts with berries lined the grave, Harry almost laughed as he realised that these were gifts from Sirius. He quickly stood up straighter, he couldn't let Sirius think that he wasn't taking this seriously.

They stood in silence for a while until Sirius clapped Harry on the back. "I think I'll leave you here with Hermione for a bit pup, say what you need to say"

Sirius left the graveyard and Harry saw him pull out a phone.

"How do you feel Harry"

"Okay, it helps not having been the first time I was here."

Hermione read the inscription of the grave " 'the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death' is that referring to the Peverell brothers?"

"I'm not sure, but probably. We should try bringing all three hallows here and see if anything happens."

"Nothing probably but it's worth the try" Hermione sighed "Do you want me to go while you say some words"

"No Hermione, I think it's best we stay together. We are together after all, aren't we?"

"You know so Harry" she smiled " they're still your parents, I'll leave you here while you say what you need to" Hermione ended up leaving and Harry stood there in silence.

After a few minutes Sirius called to Harry from the edge of The Graveyard and told him it was time to go. He decided to say goodbye and headed out to Sirius and Hermione.

"Well pup, we've been here a few hours I think it's time for some lunch, I know a good muggle place close to here that used to serve me and your dad"

"Sounds nice" Harry said.

"Yeah sounds great" added Hermione.

"Are we walking" Harry asked

"Yeah pup, it's good to clear our minds for a bit, and it's not even far. It's been such a long time since I've been here, they have the best food I've ever tasted"

"Sounds great. I'm starving I'd kill for a chicken roll right now"

They all arrived at the entrance to a small but cozy shop named 'The Greyhound', they took a booth on the inside and went to the counter to order drinks and food.

Sirius ordered for Harry and Hermione as he ordered a plate of fish and chips for himself, an assorted tray of sandwiches for Hermione, and for Harry he ordered chicken and vegetable soup.

They all sat down and ate their meals, Hermione shared her sandwiches with Harry, and ended up nabbing some of Sirius' chips as he was full.

"These are the best chips I've had" Harry said happily as he stole one of Sirius chips

"They are really amazing" muttered Hermione

"Not as great as I remember" said Sirius loudly as he winked at the waiter behind the bar.

"I used to date the waitress," Sirius said sighing. "Too bad they had to make so many posts about me being a murderous psychopath, and what's this marriage thing. All the people I liked are married now, that's new."

"It's okay Sirius, you were gone for a while but now you're back. There's nothing wrong with having to adjust, it's just the way it is" Hermione interjected

"Haha it's alright pups," Sirius laughed "just a bit under the moon". Harry nearly choked on the fry he was eating.

"How are your friends actually, have you been in contact with many of them?"

"There's one I'm trying to get a hold of but it's proving rather hard. I think I'll be able to track him down soon though" Sirius said curiously.

"Don't have anyone particular in mind do you?" Sirius asked

"No I was just wondering. I knew you were such great friends with my parents and I wasn't sure if it was just the 4 of you"

Sirius looked to be getting a bit upset by the talk and everyone could see it. Sirius suggested bringing them back to Hogwarts and they both agreed.


	15. Blood, Bludgeon, and Bullying

**Hey guys, so sorry about not being able to post much. My computer is still down and I have exams coming up in 3 weeks. I had last week off and I thought I would write this. I'm getting a new computer near the end of school so thats when Ill start to post more again. Also thanks for the reviews.**

"I don't think I've already asked" Harry said pausing " where are you staying now that you're out?"

"Oh yes, I haven't already told you both. I am staying at 12 Grimmauld Place. It's been in my family for generations, bit of a shithole if you ask me… I've never liked it there… I haven't had the best memories there either".

"Do you think you think you could take us there?" Harry asked hopefully

"Neither of us want to go back to school this early, and you did say this would be an all day event" added Hermione

"You'd both like to stay out longer with me? Okay well I can't argue with that." Sirius wrapped his arms around both Harry and Hermione "Okay guys quiet while I concentrate" and with that they all disapparated to Grimmauld Place.

"So this is Grimmauld Place? I didn't expect it to be so dark, and dirty"

"I have a house elf, doesn't do anything as you just pointed out, some devil of a creature."

"What is his name?" Hermione asked

"Kreacher".

"Yeah, what's his name" Hermione asked while winking at Harry

"No I mean his name is Kreacher, it's spelt with a K" laughed Sirius

"Do you have a garden?" asked Hermione

"It's one of the nicer aspects of this house, there's a stasis charm on it so it always looks immaculate"

"Lets go outside, I want to duel you Sirius"

"Can I go after Harry? Please"

Sirius burst into laughter "I think it sounds like you guys want to get jinxed?"

"My odds are on Harry" Hermione smiled

And with that the group headed into the garden, it was perfect for dueling, long and narrow, a lone tree near the end of the garden. They set up the markers along the sides and Hermione stood on the outside.

"Are you ready Harry? 3,2,1"

Harry immediately began moving forward, towards Sirius. He turned his body slightly to dodge Sirius' weak stinging hex, and sent a leg-locking curse to the left of Sirius in order to move him onto his back foot.

Sirius stepped back slightly and Harry immediately cast two reductos, Sirius cast a shield and they deflected over him. Sirius cast a strong disarming spell at Harry which happened to catch him off guard.

Harry's wand flew out of his hand and Sirius thought that he had won it. Sirius smiled and sent a small tickling hex at Harry. Harry jumped to the side and whispered under his breath.

His custom wand shot into his hand and he immediately cast a body binding curse at Sirius. Luckily, Sirius still had his wand up and he managed to deflect the spell off of his weak shield. He looked down at the ground where Harry's wand was and couldn't believe his eyes. Harry was not only dueling him, but had 2 wands.

Harry decided that now was a good time to cast all of his spells silently, he cast three spells. The first one was a green spell which he had read about in his parselmagic book. Sirius jumped onto the tiled floor to dodge the green spell and when he was there he cast protego maxima. Harry's other two spells were also from the parselmagic book and were coloured yellow and white respectively. The first summoned a strong wind which caused Sirius' hand to blow sideways and render his shield useless, the second was a bright light that exploded on impact. The best explanation would be that of a flashbang.

Sirius was just beginning to stand up when it hit him and he lost his bearings completely for a few Sirius was beginning to inch backwards, Harry thought it would be best to send a mild bludgeoning hex at Sirius. This nearly proved eventful as Sirius barely had his shield in place. Sirius rapidly moved to the left and stood fully on an even floor tile. Harry saw this as his principal opportunity to gain an advantage and cast Alarte Ascendare at the tile. His new favourite spell rocketed Sirius meters into the air and completely threw him off guard. He was so focused on stopping himself from falling that he didn't even notice Hera uncoil herself from Harry's neck and plant herself in the middle of the arena.

Harry nearly died of laughter when Sirius saw Hera, he might even have soiled himself after seeing Hera. Harry wanted to solidify his position so he began to cast a spell he read about with Hera.

Hera could feel Harry beginning to cast her spell so she joint cast her spell. A blue light began to link them both and it began to turn to flames. When they had finished casting, a huge blue fire erupted around Sirius and easily climbed higher than the tree. Once Sirius tried to cast a spell the blue tinted fire quickly enclosed Sirius. Harry and Hermione could see the raw fear which faced Sirius as the fire inched closer and closer until it completely engulfed him.

Once the fire had Dissipated Sirius was left lying down on the floor unconscious. There wasn't a single scratch, or burn, on him. This is where the fun began, whatever spell Sirius cast within the next hour would be targeted back at himself. Hera quickly slithered back around Harry's neck and when she wasn't visible Harry muttered the spell to wake Sirius.

Sirius quickly stood up, looking around and getting confused. Harry didn't want him to think about what happened so he cast a tickling hex at Sirius. Sirius thought that was too cheeky of Harry so he cast the strongest tickling hex he could muster.

Immediately Sirius was writhing on the floor, tears streaming down his face and muscles spasming because of the ultra strong hex that he had cast.

After a few minutes of writhing Harry decided to end the duel by disarming Sirius and ending his own spells.

"Oh God, how did you lose a duel to a first year? In a spectacular fashion as well." Hermione laughed, poking Sirius' stomach, while he was struggling to get up off the ground.

"What happened? I don't really remember everything… Did you conjure a snake?"

"Its okay Sirius, I'm not sure anybody could beat a first year in a duel when the first year is actually a time traveller sent back from the future" Harry laughed.

"Harry," Hermione said teasingly "maybe we should tell Sirius about it, what do you think?"

"Mmm, I'm not sure we can trust him, but after we got him out of Azkaban you'd think we could. Can we trust you Sirius?"

"I will take the unbreakable vow for you Harry." answered Sirius without hesitating.

Hermione smiled "Good to see you're as reckless as ever. I was doing some research and I think that a Blood Pact would be the most effective way to keep the secret. It's not as drastic and won't kill you if you break it".

"Don't take offence either Sirius, we both trust you with our life, but the blood pact makes it so you can't say it, even if you are under extreme duress. It's like a Fidelius charm but on information."

"I'm willing to do whatever it takes to prove myself to you both"

"You won't have to do whatever it takes, this is only for precautions if you come to harm, not that that would happen."

"Okay,okay. Lets get it done, I want to hear what happened! What happened to me, why did you guys come back?"

"First let us do this blood pact" Hermione cut her hand with a weak diffindo and Sirius followed along after her. "Are you ready" she asked, and Sirius nodded. They then clasped their hand together.

"Do you Sirius Orion Back, swear to not divulge information based on the events that Harry and I have experienced before attending Hogwarts in this life, swear to not give information which will harm Harry and I, without our express permission".

"I, Sirius Orion Black, swear to not divulge information based on your events before Hogwarts, swear to not do anything which will harm Harry Potter or Hermione Granger, ever. I also swear to take care of both with my life"

With the oath complete, the blood which was covering their hands turned to a gold mist, and then disappeared. They both had a glowing aura for a few seconds, when it disappeared their cuts both healed.

"That was easy, I thought it would be harder" Sirius smiled

"Well I think it's time we told you how we got here."


	16. Yikes, sorry about the wait

**Just got my computer yesterday, so I guess you can expect more uploads. Sorry for the wait… ordering it took longer than I expected, and I'm pretty swamped with trying to write college applications (+ failing miserably) . Also I have decided to axe the idea of Hermione forgiving Ron… more to the point that I have a different idea. (No he will not be turning bad). Not sure when it will happen but you will definitely know when it does ;). Also should I have good or bad albus?**

* * *

Harry and Hermione had just finished explaining everything that has happened to them up to this point, when they noticed just how pale Sirius had turned.

"So, Snape really tried to get me kissed by a dementor, killed Albus, and then said he was on your side the whole time. Pathetic," Sirius said solemnly "Do we already have a plan? I'm not going to allow us to have any casualties this time".

"We have a plan of sorts, nothing really set in stone. We have many years left before a confrontation is necessary, we would like to deal with it before then though. Harry and I would like to have a semi-normal school time if that is possible."

"Yeah, yeah I understand what you mean. If there's anything you guys would like help with then I'm happy to be of assistance. Also you guys haven't said anything about yourselves… like are you dating?"

Harry and Hermione both blushed but Hermione quickly responded, "Well, it's obvious we love each other, but Sirius we are both in extremely young bodies so nothing will happen".

"Sorry haha," Sirius smiled "I was just curious; I didn't mean to bring up a touchy subject"

"That's fine, it's not like we haven't been thinking about it ourselves. Its kinda late now Sirius, should Hermione and I be heading back to Hogwarts? You did say we wouldn't be that late to Professor McGonagall."

"You're right, that's enough for me today… actually it's enough for a lifetime but what can you do." he smirked.

"Actually Sirius, I was hoping you could deliver this letter in person for me… I put a charm on my parents so that they would move to New York City, it's safer there and I'll visit them in the summer. I really need to make sure they're okay though, if I give your their address can you go and meet them for me?"

"No problem, it might take me a bit while I get my innocence sorted out in all the areas that are affected, but there's no need to worry I will make sure they're all okay".

Harry and Hermione exited the fireplace into Professor McGonagall's office and nobody was there.

"She's not here, I guess we should leave a note saying we arrived back."

"Yeah you're right, make sure you add the time so she knows we weren't back after curfew. That's in case she arrives back to her office late."

"Okay" Harry said as he dipped his quill in ink "your handwriting is better maybe you should be the one to write it."

"Whatever," Hermione said as she took the quill Harry handed her. "We should go to the library after, we have some written homework for Snape that we have to finish. "

They headed to the library where they did their homework.

"I know this is easy," said Harry "but it's just too much writing. My hands are killing me".

"At least this time you actually know what you're doing and don't need as much help. I'm just thankful I don't have to check both you and Ron's work."

They both heard a crash from the entrance of the library and everyone around them stood up to see what had happened.

Neville was sprawled along the floor looking helpless and panting, he surveyed the room and was ecstatic to see Harry and Hermione looking at him. He stood up quickly, apologised to the room, and then another time to Madam Pince who was giving him a stare that would normally of sent him running. He then walked over to them and sat down next to Harry.

"Hey guys, I was wondering if you heard about the competition to find out what's locked in the sealed room. Do you think you guys will go after it as well? I heard …. Ron and Dean wanted to beat you guys to the prize."

"No, I don't think we will Neville, it doesn't sound very safe."

"I don't even believe its a competition" added Harry.

"That's good to hear, I was nervous that I was the only one thinking that."

"Did you do your Potions homework Neville?"

"I was going to do it later tonight."

"If you want" Hermione said, "I can help you with it if you start it now."

"Would you really? Snape scares me in class and it always ruins my work".

"Of course Neville," Hermione smiled "Let's get started".

When Harry was finished his homework he stood up from the table and picked up his things which were sprawled across the table. "I'm finished the homework so I'm gonna head out for a bit. I'll see you guys later."

"See you" Hermione and Neville said in unison.

Harry exited through the library doors intent on finding Ron. He didn't know where he would find Ron but decided that the best place to find him would be the common room so he decided to check there first.

He entered the common room and saw Ron hanging with a group of classmates in the back, he walked over to them and noticed that they slipped a piece of parchment off the table.

"Hey guys, just heard you're thinking of entering the 3rd floor corridor. I really don't think that's a good idea, surely Dumbledore wouldn't have warned us if it was safe."

"Maybe he just wants to separate the brave from the cowards, we can guess which one you are." Ron laughed, the rest of the group chuckled slightly not knowing how Harry would respond.

This sly comment really annoyed Harry though, it annoyed him that Ron insulted him when he was just watching out for him. This annoyance was compounded when he thought about what happened with Ron before he travelled back in time.

"I must be the coward you're right; although I am sure Voldemort doesn't think the same" when Harry said the name the chuckles stopped and Ron flinched. Harry turned and walked away, he also noticed that the whole common room was silent. He walked confidently from the common room and back to Neville and Hermione.

He walked back to where they were sitting and was surprised to notice that Neville had fallen asleep and Hermione had used a spell to mimic his handwriting.

"What's going on? Do you need his handwriting for something?"

"He was working hard and fell asleep so I thought I would continue on for him, I'm going to do my best to make sure he isn't as badly picked on by Snape. He's actually quite good but was missing some basic foundation."

"Oh okay, you don't need any help then do you?"

"No, of course not. It's literally first year work, and frankly I don't think it could be any easier."

"Great then, I was thinking of taking my trunk from my dorm and putting it in the room of requirement. This way we can lounge around together without having to worry about anyone else intruding."

"That's a really good idea Harry, but what about your robes? Oh yeah, special charms I forgot."


	17. Red Hair and Snotty Wands

Honestly, I'm really just looking at the wiki for modifiers of spells and how they could be used in duels :/ there's loads of good battle spells I could make up as there's a lack in canon… would anyone mind if I used those as well. I'd probably have to explain them at the end of the chapter if I did. Also my lack of posting is attributable to me reading more than I am writing.

Harry was crouching, slowly walking up the stairs to the seventh floor. His invisible cloak covering both him and his trunk. He looked past the Barnabas The Barmy tapestry and saw the hallway was clear, he walked back and forth; on his third time the door appeared to his side and he quietly opened the door. He peered inside and when he saw it was empty he lifted his invisibility cloak and entered. He set aside his trunk in a pile of junk near the edge. He made sure to remember where it was so he wouldn't lose it in the whole jungle of forgotten things.

The room was just filled with rows and rows piled high with broken and lost objects, from Remembralls to old brooms.

He popped open his trunk and headed inside, tomorrow he would show Hermione where it was and they could chill together from then on. He was excited to be rid of the stares he gets when being in the common room. He sat down on the couch in his trunk and then took out his parselmagic book, it was time to read some more.

He woke up the next morning and saw he was earlier than he had thought. He headed back to his room for a shower and when he entered the common room through the portrait hole he noticed that Ron was already up, which was both worrying and surprising. Harry crept over to Ron, who was talking to the twins, and was doing his best to listen in on them.

Harry was now arms length from and leaned in so that he could hear their whispers,

"Are you sure you want to go so soon Ron?" Fred asked

"Yes of course I do! Harry Potter is trying to convince everyone not to go and I'm positive the git is only doing it so that he can get to the end first, of course he wants all the glory he can get. It's not like You-Know-Who was enough for him."

"We dont think thats a good idea but we're always here to help our little brother" they both smiled

"What do you need" they asked in unison

Harry quietly cursed and then made his way back to his dorm room as he decided what to do next, he knew that Ron wouldn't give up trying to get to what he thought was the trophy. Harry just hoped that Ron wouldn't get hurt, or at least put anyone else in danger. He knew that Ron could be stubborn but he didn't expect him to try and twist what he said around so much, and even if Harry said go for it he would think of it as good. No matter what Harry seemed to think Ron would always continue trying to do it.

"I'm just going to let it be" he mumbled.

After his shower he headed down the dorm stairs to the common room, as he entered he nodded greetings towards the Weasley's and then continued down to the halls. He met up with Hermioine before class and told her what he heard.

A few weeks had passed and there were no signs of Ron going for the stone anytime soon, Harry and Hermione were pairing up for Charms class, and class was just about to get started.

"Okay students, today I will be teaching you the levitation spell wingardium leviosa. I will show you the proper wand movements, but first you must read the passage in your textbooks regarding real world situations, and how this can best be utilised. Harry, along with the rest of the class, pulled the giant textbooks out from beneath their tables and opened it to the page Flitwick had called out.

"Observe class as I show you the correct wand movements to complete this charm, and please be careful with your pronunciation."

Flitwick showed them the swish and flick which Harry had been so amazed by when he first saw it, and after he perfectly completed the spell at the same time as Hermione, earning them both a house point each, and a congratulations from Flitwick.

As Hermione wasn't helping Ron, she helped her other Gryffindor classmates and managed to get everyone she helped doing a perfect completion, she ended up earning 6 more points for Gryffindor. Ron, however, was still unable to get the feather to move vertically.

Flitwick covered a few more points regarding the spell, ushered them to practice and read outside the curriculum, and then dismissed the class.

"Well that was a good class," said Harry.

"Better than the last time anyways" Hermione muttered.

"What are we going to do about you-know-what later?" Harry asked

"Maybe we should just leave it, there was no other people around the hallway at that time, I'm not sure anybody would have gotten hurt."

"Are you sure?"

"You know I don't like the risk as much as you do Harry, but sometimes it will be necessary. If you don't think this specific risk is necessary then we can always tag along behind it under your invisibility cloak."

"I think I would prefer that, if anyone got hurt, even killed, by that troll it would be completely our fault".

"Yeah, I think this is the right decision, I think you should use the charm from the parselmagic book you were telling me about, I mean you have the few hours you need to charge it."

"Great Idea! I'm going to head to my trunk and do that now, cover for me will you?"

"Of course, I'll come up to you before it happens and we can head down together."

"Sounds great, I'm starving though, lets go get some lunch. I'll head up then after that.

Harry and Hermione were both under the cover of the invisibility cloak and were waiting in the hallway close to where the troll had stumbled into the bathroom. They were listening intently but there wasn't a single sound, it was almost too quiet. A sudden sound of a door opening caused them both to startle, two students they didn't recognise walked in.

"Did you hear that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger have only gotten O's in their classes so far?"

"I heard they were doing well, no way they got an O with Snape though".

"I heard they got an E, but for them that's basically an O, they must be amazing to get anything above an A".

"Yeah you're right Snape is probably much worse to them than he is to anybody else"

They both passed Harry and Hermione, completely unaware of the two invisible students next to them.

"I'd say he treats Fred and George worse than them, they just try to sit through the class, Fred and George do their best to not let anybody else sit through class. "

"Haha I'd say you're not too wrong about that"

The door closed, Harry and Hermione were now alone again, no sign of the troll.

"Maybe we should see if there's anything going on." Hermione whispered

"Are you sure? This is where it was last time… do you think things could have changed? Nothings changed enough to make him pick a different day right?"

"A lot of things are different this time around… The whole school, and in addition to this Voldemort, knows you have Hera."

Immediately after Hermione finished speaking the two students rushed back through the doors they had went through. Both of the students were panting and sprinting down the corridor, the one on the right seemed to be limping quite drastically; their cloaks were ripped and they saw that one had a large cut along his arm which seemed to be bleeding quite of the two stopped to look back, they kept their heads down and ran like they were running from the end of the world.

Harry and Hermione quickly took off the invisibility cloak, tucked it in a corner, then briskly walked through the doors and hell greeted them, there was rubble scattered all over the floor. Several large holes dotted along the walls and three students were strewn across the hallway floor, there was no troll in sight, although the door at the opposite end of the hallway was completely busted in.

Harry and Hermione ran down the hallway and stopped when they reached the first student, they knelt next to the person and saw they were an older Gryffindor student that neither of them recognised. The Gryffindor student had a very obvious broken leg which connected to a large gash which went completely through the students stomach. Hermione gagged and Harry nearly got sick.

"Hera, uncoil yourself there and do the stasis magic you were telling me about."

Hera uncoiled herself from around Harry and slid down his arm, she climbed onto the chest of the student and recoiled back.

She recoiled back and flared her fangs back, dripping a clear liquid, then struck the area next to the students gash. The student seemed to pale and Hera went back into Harry's sleeve and coiled around his hand. They then went to the rest of the students and did that as quickly as possible until all of the students were safely under the stasis effect that would prevent their health from deteriorating any further than it already has.

After they had finished Hera went back around Harry's neck and out of peoples line of sight. Harry and Hermione went through the exit door and saw the troll at the end of the hallway, the troll was smashing his club into the door and trying to understand why this one wasn't being blown out of its hinges.

Harry and Hermione immediately sprung to action as the troll turned around to look at them, seeing both of them as a new way to express his rage at the unbreakable door. The troll raised his arms above his head, club still in hand, and bellowed. The loud roar reverberated through the chamber and made their hair stand on end. Last time their troll wasn't enraged like this, and they could now see why fully fledged wizards are killed by them.

Harry summoned the elder wand into his hand and immediately shouted

"Expelliarmus", the club shot from the trolls hand at a blinding speed and crashed into the 'unbreakable' door causing it to erupt into pieces.

The troll stopped in its path, turned around, and then quickly started making its way towards the door that led to the main corridor, where all the students would be streaming out of The Main Hall. Hermione realised this before Harry and sprinted in the direction of the troll, Harry a few steps behind. When Hermione caught up she saw the troll had just noticed the streams of students. All of the first through third years were sprinting away from the troll and being led by a few fifth year Hufflepuff. The fourth year Gryffindoors were staying to fight the troll, along with the older students from the other houses, although Hermione noticed that there were no Slytherin students in sight.

Hermione knew that she couldn't cast any advanced spells that would make it obvious they had a greater extent of knowledge, but instead sought to utilise her early spells. All of the spells the other students were casting seemed to be too weak to breach the natural defensive magic that troll skin has. Some seemed to realise this and retreated backwards down the corridor, calling for the other students to do the same.

The troll was advancing on the remaining students quickly, Hermione saw if she didn't act quickly the troll would get within the distance it needed to strike the students. She cast the tripping jinx with as much power as she could and the troll immediately started to go down. It was then she realised her mistake, the troll was going to collapse on top of the students she was trying to protect.

Harry saw this as well and immediately cast alarte ascendare, which shot the horizontal body of the troll high into the air, then both Hermione and Harry used wingardium leviosa to guide the troll away from the students as it began to fall. The other students looked shocked at who was helping then, but quickly joined the effort of leading the troll down safely.

"You guys run away, Hermione and I will take care of the troll once it gets up. There's no need to put yourselves in unnecessary danger." Harry issued in a strong voice of authority, most of the students immediately complied, although a few stayed back wondering how a first year could possibly do this on his own.

This was quickly settled as Hermione shouted "This troll will be easy for him, he's taken down Voldemort for Merlin's sake".

Harry smiled at her when they saw it was successful and the rest of the students were scurrying away.


	18. The bigger they are the harder they fall

**Hey I've been reading the reviews and my slightly angry (lmao) response to some of these reviews will be at the end. I've been working and reading the past few weeks so I haven't had that much time to write recently. Also it seems my hour to write one chapter has actually increased…**

The troll was beginning to stand up when the last of the students slammed the door behind them, now that all of the conscious students were gone they could start using their most offensive magic.

As the troll was beginning to move towards a student who was unconscious; Hermione sent a chair from the hallway flying into the head of the troll, and this seemed to get the attention of the troll as it turned back towards them both. The troll was moving forward quickly swinging his club through the air, the troll was within striking distance from Hermione when Harry sent a curse that he didn't recognise directly connecting with the trolls hand. The trolls arm that held the club immediately lost momentum and the troll began to shriek in pain as his arm began to show visible signs of burning, the burn spread right from the fingertips to the shoulder and stopped right before its neck. The troll was doing its best to maintain balance as it stopped so suddenly. They knew it was best they didn't let the troll recover, Hermione was the first to cast the next spell as she conjured ropes to bind the troll using the incarcerous spell. Harry sent out a spell that caused more ropes to be conjured around the ropes that Hermione had already casted.

"Harry! Get here quickly! The stasis charm didn't settle properly with this one." There was blood pooled around the torso of a Hufflepuff student as they seemed to be struggling breathing.

Harry's energy dropped, this student was on the verge of death, he had no idea what he could do apart from trying to do the same thing again.

Hera was already out and slithered onto the student, she did the same bite as she did last time, the same aura appeared as last time, this time it seemed to stop the bleeding. Hera went back into Harry's sleeve and up to his neck. After about a minute Hermione decided that this time the stasis magic was actually working and that they could check to see how the others were doing. They darted to see how the other students were doing, thankfully all of the other students had stasis charms that were working perfectly.

"Now we just have to wait for the professors to get here" Hermione smiled

"It's good not having many witnesses, bit hard to explain otherwise"

"Haha you're right, not sure what Snape would say… this doesn't exactly look like we got lucky"

As that was said, there was a loud grunt and ripping sound from behind them. They both turned around to see that the troll was standing above the ripped cloth and had a renewed sense of energy. The energy radiating from the troll felt immense as they reached for their wands once again.

The Troll immediately headed towards the downed student close to him, he raised his club in the air so he could smash the student in front of him, but just in time Hermione cast a spell that conjured an invisible barrier between the troll and the student.

Harry, sensing what Hermione was trying to do, used his elder wand to create a long barrier that forced the troll to focus on them. It was a colosseum that enclosed them from the outside environment. The walls inside were dim and there was a palpable sense of magic coursing through the air.

The troll seemed to realise these students were in an equal power bracket that he was in and was unsure how to carry forward. The troll began to march forward, using his club to absorb some of the spells that they were shooting. It became very clear that the troll was taking this fight seriously. Even though trolls were supposed to be relatively dumb, this troll seemed to know that the spells wouldnt effect him as bad if they hit the club or missed him. It was moving side to side and rendering most of their spells useless.

"What are we going to do Harry," Hermione managed to say between two bombarda maximas

"I just need an opening" Harry said, winded.

They've been sending some of their best spells non stop for thirty seconds now, their magic was beginning to take a drain on them. Meanwhile, the troll seemed unaffected and was still slowly making his way towards them. Harry felt himself running out of power so he turned to Hermione to warn her "I don't think I can keep this protection up for much longer Hermione"

"That's okay, but the second this falls we need to end the fight. We don't want any of the others getting hurt."

Harry mentally prepared himself to pour the rest of his magic into the few spells they would be able to cast after the protection comes down, he counted down from 5 loudly so Hermione would hear as well.

The roof disappeared and the walls fell outwards, there was a large bang as the walls then hit the floor; for some reason the troll also collapsed to the floor.

Harry and Hermione looked around and were surprised to see that the halls were quite dark and they were surrounded by a group of the schools most powerful professors, although Hermione noticed Professor Quirrel was not in sight.

They instantly had a face full of Snape as he limped over to them quickly and practically shouted in their face "WHAT IS IT YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING? FIGHTING A TROLL FOR HOURS INSIDE YOUR LITTLE CONTRAPTION WHICH HEALS THE STUDENTS WHO WERE INJURED? DID YOU NOT STOP TO THINK THAT THE MAGIC SAPPED FROM A TROLL AND GIVEN TO A STUDENT MIGHT NOT ONLY BE DANGEROUS BUT ALSO DARK MAGIC?!" These words not only shocked Harry and Hermione, they both got shivers down their spine as they simultaneously realised that they had been in there for hours, and not just a few minutes.

"It's all right Severus, I don't believe they had any malicious intent," Dumbledore smiled, "You seem to be very concerned regarding the students safety, if you would like I can call you to my office after they and I have a nice talk"

"Actually Headmaster, I would indeed like to talk to them after ", even though Dumbledore seemed surprised about Snape wanting to, he waved his hand visibly confirming that Snape could speak to them afterwards.

"Harry, Hermione" Dumbledore gestured towards the direction of the main stairs "would you please walk with me to my office".

The walk to his office got increasingly more quiet as they neared his office, the kind words they got at the start of the journey entirely disappeared as Dumbledore had not uttered a word in the past few minutes. The Golden Duo glanced at each other every so often, drawing comfort from the others smile; they too didn't say any words to each other as they thought it would be best in the situation they were in.

They reached the stairs to his office and he asked them to wait a few minutes while he tidied up his office, they were thankful for the extra time as while they were waiting they quickly decided on the story they would tell Dumbledore. They were finally called up after a wait of what they guessed was a quarter of an hour.

They entered the office to see that it was in a mess, Dumbledore sat down at the desk looking quite solemn.

"I'm sorry to say Harry, I haven't been able to find an object that your father had left with me before he passed away,"

"Murdered in cold blood, you mean professor" Hermione said with the straightest face.

"Well yes Ms. Granger, I don't wish to dibble-dabble in the past, `` Dumbledore answered while gazing over them " How is it you are both so adept with magic? I can't fathom how many adults did what you did today, not to mention whether or not a single student at Hogwarts would be able to replicate what you did; that is before I even consider the fact that you trapped magic from the environment and directed it into the wounds of the injured".

"Really, thats what was happening? It felt like we were in there for only a few minutes"

"Wow!," Hermione gasped "I've never heard of accidental magic like that Harry"

"I know, it's hard to believe it Hermione. I'm just thankful it happened at the perfect time! Any later and it would surely have gotten us" he said while hoping that Dumbledore would believe the magic was caused by accident.

"Quite lucky, I would push you both to be more careful with your surroundings, and exercise a bit more subtlety in your magic skills. I do believe Severus will give you the same words of caution. If you wouldn't mind calling down to his office before you head to your dormitories."

As Hermione and Harry were leaving Dumbledore called out a last remark "It's late and dark so I believe the spell you will need is 'Lumos'" Dumbledore was chuckling to himself as they heard the door close behind them. Now they were off to see what Snape had to say.

They had arrived at Snape's office to find the door locked, they knocked on the door and the door immediately swung open, Snape ushered them in. When they walked inside Snape peered into the hallway behind them, checked both directions, then closed the door and locking it with a spell they didn't recognise.

Hermione went to talk but Snape made a gesture to be quiet, he casted a set of spells which Harry guessed gave them utmost privacy.

Snape was the first to speak once the spells were completed, "I'm not sure what happened today, but I do know that I want to help you. If you want me to teach you anything I will, be it potions, dark spells, anything. Do not be fooled, The Dark Lord is not dead and you will have to fight him".

Both Hermione and Harry were shocked by what Snape had just said, they didn't even know how to react. Hermione took a risk,

"Professor, I believe you need to prove your trustworthiness to us, for example, how do we know you won't tell Dumbledore all of the questions that we have for you."

"Okay Ms Granger, do you have something specific in mind?"

"Actually I do, the unbreakable vow."

 **Hey I just wanted to address the reviews which a few people have left regarding Harry's view of forgiving Ron.**

 **I guess I'll just get into it, saying Harry , canon or not, would never forgive anyone who hurt Hermione is absolutely false. Ron has hurt Hermione, Harry has hurt Hermione, Draco has hurt Hermione, Snape has hurt Hermione, along with others. He has forgiven all of those in canons epilogue and some even quicker within the story itself.**

 **In fact, Harry had chosen, at an earlier time, to value a f….ng broom more than he did his friendship with Hermione.**

 **Yet, somehow, some reviewers think it is unsubstantiated for Harry to forgive his best friend (by a long shot in canon). Not only is Ron his best friend, he also has what canon Harry wanted most, a family. All of canon happened earlier in my story by the way, realistically Harry would've tried to believe Ron's logic in doing what he did to Hermione.**

 **These are just a few of the reasons why Harry Potter would most likely be desperate to forgive Ron, and the only reason he does not forgive Ron in MY story is that I personally do not like Ron.**

 **Also I'm not even going to address someone calling Hermione a gold digger as that seems to be more their psychological issue than anything pertaining to my story.**


	19. Everlasting touch

***** IMPORTANT. Oof If anybody is qualified enough to review my personal statement I'd be appreciative. Im writing for Economics at Cambridge but as I move around a lot I do not have many, if any, academic achievements to talk about. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter, I've never even tried writing anything even close to romantic.**

They were all sitting down facing each other, Hermione had just declared that she required the unbreakable vow and Snapes jaw gaped just a tiny bit.

"Ms. Granger I'm not sure that you realise the…. Severity of the Unbreakable Vow; what you will tell me won't warrant its use."

"Unbreakable vow or we cannot tell you Severus," Hermione said sternly, "You simply do not know the extent to which our secrets may affect the world and we need the utmost security on this information."

Snape grimaced and seemed to go into deep thought, he closed his eyes, Hermione and Harry glanced at each other with the expression they both thought it was odd. Around a minute passed before Snape stirred, his eyes opened again and he spoke,

"I Severus Snape, son of Tobias Snape and Eileen Prince, hereby do swear upon my magic and life that I will not divulge any information I am told in confidence by Harry Potter and Hermione Granger which they conclude to be sensitive information. I will, however, be able to impart the information I am told, if I am given express consent from both, to the person they so desire. May my life and magic be offered if I break this vow." A warm glow enveloped Professor Snape as he stopped speaking, he gave them a somewhat cold glare which indicated them to start.

Harry stood up, summoned the elder wand to his hand and began casting the most advanced privacy wards that he could erect, the fact that he used the elder wand made the room entirely sealed with no possible breaches. Snape was immediately on edge as he realised the complexity of the spells that Harry had just cast; Hermione not being shocked by Harry's magic made a shiver run down his spine, what did he just gets himself into.

Snape was sitting there mouth wide open, no level of occlumency could stop him from being shocked to the core, he couldn't even begin to imagine the story they had said had the tiniest bit of credence towards their story. Not only did he die, but a second year Harry Potter defeated a 1000 year old basilisk. They hadn't even got to the description of the 4th year and above when Snape had to stand up and take a break between the description of the trials they had faced.

At the start he had doubts until they explained how the current year went in detail, and also described death eaters that were not known to the public. They had proven that what they were going to say is factual and did in fact happen; although trying to get Snape to wait until they reached the part of time travel was a bit of a hassle.

They made sure to nominally lie and embellish the parts regarding Snape so he didn't find out that they had an EXTREMELY intense disliking for each other previously.

At the end the duo were exhausted after describing in meticulous detail their wizarding lives up to this point, from the first time they fought the hogwarts troll, and now the second.

"I do now see the reasoning behind your adamancy using the unbreakable vow, I can't say I had expected this when you first mentioned it, actually I was just expecting you to tell me that you had snuck into the restricted section. I was planning on giving you a pass in case you wanted to read those books, while now I strongly encourage you to read them."

"Professor, we were hoping that you would be able to teach us legilimency and also… somewhat darker magic that would be useful in fights. I think we were hoping to get some dueling practice from both you and Sirius, although I previously bested Sirius so now I'm not too sure I'll be able to learn much more about dueling from him."

"I would definitely be able to teach you legilimency, which will be easier as you both have impenetrable occlumency barriers. I must hesitate to teach you darker magic until a later date as your magic is still compounding from how powerful you were before time travel, essentially meaning that you will have twice the power as you had at the final battle against The Dark Lord."

"What about the dueling? Or even the flying without a broom?" Hermione asked

"Dueling will be too hard to hide from other students and teachers so I believe I will have to decline that request."

"We know somewhere," Harry smiled, glancing at Hermione "Actually it's the Room of Requirement, I forgot we told you about that already" Harry said sheepishly

"That would work Harry!" Hermione nearly squealed with joy "We'll be able to duel seriously with Professor Snape without having to even worry about being intruded upon."

"In that case I will consider the offer, however I do have other business to deal with so we should start when we finish your other teachings. We can discuss more this weekend. Meet me here at 9am Saturday, its extremely late now and you'll have classes in the next few hours. Actually, I'll recommend that the Headmaster allow you to skip tomorrows classes." When Snape said Headmaster, Harry sensed a twinge of anger.

With that Harry and Hermione left to return to their trunk where they slept in the same bed, they were both so exhausted they never changed out of the robes they had been wearing the day before. They woke up to the sound of their morning alarm ringing out across the apartment, Hermione immediately sat up and silenced the alarm, both Harry and Hermione groaned as they sat up.

Harry made to get out of bed," immediately stopped by Hermione interrupting him,

"Harry Snape said we didn't have to go to classes today, stay in bed with me!" Hermione said commandingly.

Harry blushed when he realised he was in bed with Hermione; Hermione blushed deep red when it occurred to her what she had just said and how it made Harry blush.

"That's not what I meant Harry you know it" Hermione stammered "We're not even dating" Hermione said quickly trying to play it off.

Harry immediately stopped and stared at her "I love you, I'm not here with Ginny, Cho, or Molly" he said seriously, although he smirked when he said the last name on the small list. "I'm here with you Hermione" he said again. Hermione smiled faintly but then glanced down.

"You didn't have a choice to bring me back Harry, you just went along with it once it happened" Hermione said while still looking down.

Harry stood up and made her look at him, "Hermione Jean Granger, I could have watched every single student in Hogwarts die ten times over without stopping the fight with Voldemort; I can't imagine moving a step without you there with me Hermione. I didn't give up the fight when I knew we lost, I gave up when I saw that you had been killed."

he continued ;even louder when he saw that she had given him her attention,

"Hermione I have made mistakes before, some big, some small, but NONE! Have been bigger than not telling you that I loved every time I saw you. Every Time I saw you I wanted to tell you that I love you," Harry looked down.

"I didn't know what to say or when to say it. I wanted to say it when we went back to school the year we found out about Sirius, but all your summer letter mentioned was Ron and I thought maybe you liked him. Then you guys were having Ice Cream at Fortescues, I thought you guys were together. Next time I thought to say it was around the time of Buckbeak, but when Ron offered to help you, you cried in delight and embraced him like you were made for eachother. In the year after I was going to ask you to the Yule Ball but before I could you told me that Krum had just asked you" Harry wiped away a tear "When Fleur kissed Ron, you seemed ready to murder her, I thought your love for him was cemented. I didn't say anything after that. My biggest regret is when we were alone in the forest and I never said that I had always loved you since the troll incident." There were full tears running down Harry's cheek as he spoke, Hermione did too.

"I… I … I had no idea Harry." there was a slight pause and Hermione showed a melancholic smile, "I always loved you too," Hermione was the one wiping her tears away now "I never thought I was good enough for The-Boy-Who-Lived, I was just a muggleborn student who tagged along next to you and spent an exorbitant amount of time in the library. I always thought you deserved the prettiest girls and that someone like Daphne Greengrass would've been perfect for you, sure I would've preferred it to have been myself, but I thought I was only good enough for Ron"

"Hermione. You know that's not true, Krum liked you for a reason too. Krum and I aren't blind, we saw how special you were"

Hermione blushed but still didn't seem entirely convinced " I love you Harry"

" I love you too Hermione"

"So is that it? Are we dating now or something?"

"If you want to then yes of course"

"Well we are older than our bodies so we won't be doing anything….. Physical right" Hermione laughed

"We could always use age potions" Harry said winking, and the appalled expression on Hermione's face made him burst out in laughter.

" I guess not," he giggled, "Shame. Maybe one of the 7th years would be okay with taking a polyjuice potion of you…. Actually Tonks is still in Hogwarts right, or she graduated last year?"

"Harry please dont even joke about that, there probably would be people okay doing what you just said. Also, I never actually said 'no'; I was just a bit shocked by the proposal." Hermione was the one to wink this time, and Harry's jaw dropped. Harry blushed a deep scarlet and Hermione started laughing "Don't bite off more than you can chew Mr. Potter."

"The same for you, Mrs. Potter. I wouldn't want you to be out of your depth."

"I think you're the one of out of depth, I can be competitive." Hermione said teasingly, turning away to pick up her book.

"Competitive?" Harry smirked to himself, " If you're soooo competitive I guess you won't say no to marrying me."

"Maybe you're right. Who knows?" Hermione whispered the last part as she turned her head insignificantly, trying to glance how Harry was reacting.

Harry didn't see that she turned, he had been watching her intently but those last words caught him off guard and he glanced down at the floor. He wanted to ask her, he was sure that she was the one for him. He didn't know if she thought the same, but Merlin did he want to ask her.

"Hermione I… I wasn't kidding." Harry said meekly, making Hermione turn around. "I know" she smiled warmly, moving forward and closing the gap between them. She was only a few centimetres from Harry now.

He could feel her warm breath against his face, he could smell the strong scent of perfume now that they were so close, he could see the light perfectly refracting off her lips like they had been diamonds, "I know" she grinned; the two hearts beating immeasurably fast and each beat with the force to knock whole cities down.

They closed the gap and their lips locked, the second they connected the surroundings seemed to beam brighter, they were thrust into heaven as white divine light filled them both, pleading them never to separate and break the marvellous world they just created.

It was as if being at the creation of life, they were both enveloped by the most astounding feelings, they gasped for air. Barely able to contain the pure euphoria both felt every time their lips grazed, a feeling as intense as if it had been a bullet that had done the grazing. A lilac light passed over them both and fleeted as soon as it had come, neither entirely sure if it was just imagination.

Harry and Hermione saw it but didn't care, they locked lips again, this time it felt different. The feeling in the room was enough to make any man or woman sway, it was like breathing in refined ambrosia. They broke apart but this time they just stared intently at each other and let their hands wander aimlessly over the other person, both hoping to encounter bare skin but also just wanting to be close to each other.


	20. Took long enough, huh?

**Thanks for the 0 people who messaged to help me on my personal statement, but here's round two. I'm starting back to school wednesday the 4th so uploads will be a bit longer again. Also a pretty big chapter in terms of plot importance, I hope after this chapter everyone can see why I allowed Harry to try and befriend Ron…**

It had been a few weeks since Harry and Hermione had first kissed, they hadn't talked about it much as they both felt nervous talking about how it had felt, something had definitely changed within them. Harry and Hermione were dreaming about each other every single night, they never told each other, as they thought that the other might find it heaped more tension if the other didn't feel the same way.

Their magic seemed to be rapidly getting stronger and they seemed to be able to feel the magic around them. Whenever they worked together the other seemed to know exactly what spell the other was casting. They were torturingly close to each other half the time, yet neither wanted to be the one to initiate the kiss… on the very slim chance the other would be unhappy. Harry was beginning to break apart as there was nothing he wanted more than to be with Hermione again. The only thing keeping them sane was how Ron had been making large bounds in being able to get the Philosopher's Stone, he even recruited a Ravenclaws help in case they needed some logical help during the trials. Neville had heard him talking about putting the large three headed dog to sleep with music and was diligent to tell Harry and Hermione. Harry and Hermione were shocked to hear that a few of the 5th year Hufflepuffs had found out how to get past Fluffy and were telling the other houses so that they could even the playing field. They had no idea that Ron was building a team with some of their year in the other houses, apart from Slytherin.

They thought nothing of it, and as the weeks went by people kept talking about how to put Fluffy to sleep less and less. Eventually it reached a point where Harry and Hermione thought that everyone but themselves had forgotten about it.

They were both sharing a seat together reading in The Common Room when Neville had darted in panting, he saw Hermione sitting down first "Hermione!" he saw Harry now "Harry!".

"You won't believe this!" Neville said, bending over to catch his breath, "Ron, Dean, Seamus, and some people from other houses just stunned me an hour ago after I stood up to them" he clutched at a stitch in his side, determined to explain what happened "They're going to the restricted corridor, I saw Professor Quirrell heading in that direction after them, I think they might get expelled. You have to try help them!" Neville collapsed onto the couch when Harry and Hermione stood up.

They shared a glance at each other "I guess we have to," Hermione said to Harry; only they knew that Quirrel housed an angry Voldemort and wouldn't hesitate to kill the kids if they acquired the stone.

They were both rushing to the room with Fluffy, their increased magic sustaining them and allowing them to have increased stamina. They effortlessly maneuvered around all the students that they passed. There was a few 6th year Hufflepuff that tried to stop them from running in the hallway, when Hermione saw they were running after them she cast three perfectly aimed leg-locking curses. They reached the corridor to see that the door to Fluffys room didn't seem to exist anymore, it must have been banished thought Harry.

Where once Fluffy had been guarding, there lay a body. It was obvious to both Harry and Hermione that Fluffy was not asleep, but instead murdered. The husk of the cerberus lay unmoving with eyes wide open, on the left there was a violin that was crushed next to the hatch. Hermione decided to quickly inspect the pieces and saw that 'Justin F. Fletchley' was engraved on the side.

They jumped down the hatch and as they were falling realised that the walls were coated in some of the darkest magic they had felt before. Harry never realised that the Devils Snare was gone, and it was only Hermione casting two 'Arresto Momentum' spells that stopped them both from falling to what would have been their death.

Harry was visibly shaken once he found his footing, he guessed that Quirrell was much more serious about getting the stone after he heard about Harry and Hermiones feat of magic with the troll. They got to the Winged Keys section to see that there was only one key flying, the rest of the keys were stripped bare in a large pile to the right of the door, the wings severed cleanly off.

The last key was severely damaged and wasn't even able to rise past the height of Harry's head, he easily grabbed it and turned the key, there was a slight resistance but after another attempt the hinge fell from the door, the large old fashioned door slammed to the ground. The sound reverberated through the passages ahead and behind them.

They walked carefully through the remainder of the doorway, Harry and Hermione were not entirely sure what to expect with McGonagalls, but they never expected the area to be deconstructed so finely. Every single chess piece was shattered into fine rubble, not a single piece thicker than Hermione's fingernail remained. It was so finely grounded that Harry's first thought was confusion as to why sugar sprinkled the ground, instantly he remembered the situation he was in and panic set in.

"Hermione, this is bad. Voldemort would have caught up with them if he was close behind. It looks like he just ploughed through the whole course."

"I know Harry, let's just get going we still may have some time"

They were both jogging through the ashes of the chessboard when Hermione tripped on what Harry guessed to be a weapon hilt under a large pile of dust. Hermione was already picking herself up off the floor when she screamed.

Harry was immediately on guard, his wand out and surveying the room around them.

"Harry, NO!" Hermione said with tears streaming down her face "Its Dean, he's not breathing"

Harry dived to the floor, his hands wiping away as much dust as possible until Dean's whole body was visible. Meanwhile, Hermione was casting diagnostic charms, gasped when she realised he was alive, and then started heaping on all of the stasis charms that she knew.

"You're done?" Harry asked "The wards should have gone off and the professors will be down soon"

"Yeah let's get moving, the others will still be in trouble,'' they both jogged down the path and were happy to see that nobody was hurt at the troll section, except for the troll that is. The troll had a large bump on the top of its head, Harry assumed that Ron had used its club to finish it like they did their first year. The bump wasn't the worst the troll had to deal with as it had been finished off quickly with what Harry guessed to be some dark curse, although definitely not the killing curse. Its torso was transparent, all the organs still there but they looked as if they were made of glass, Harry was curious to see what it felt like, but hesitated at the last second.

They entered Snape's challenge to see ice covering the whole chamber floor, the fire that was originally blocking the path now illuminated the ice but did not pass through, anyone would be able to pass through without any thought or worry. They were carefully walking through the chamber when they heard a scream from the next room. They immediately dropped their stances and rushed into the next room.

They hurried through the door to see Quirrell dangling Ron Weasley by the neck. The rest of the Hogwarts students were sprinkled around the room, wounded but not dead. He also noticed Justin was missing a hand and seemed to be unconscious. It looked like Quirrell had used the pain he inflicted on the other students to force Ron to give him the stone. Ron's face, nearly purple due to the psychopath choking him, seemed to beam when it saw them both. Quirrell grabbed the stone that Ron was gripping tightly in the other hand, and threw him to the side.

"Thank Merlin, you're here. I thought nobody would ever bloody come. We can fight him together!" Ron's voice echoed around the chamber.

Before Harry could even raise his wand, Quirrel spoke the incantation that would plague Harry "Avada-KEDAVRA" he spoke, turning to aim his wand at Ron, a vicious smile upon his face. A green spell flew from Quirrell's wand, and Harry watched in almost slow motion as the spell connected directly with Ron.

Instantly Ron dropped to the floor, a horrified expression posted to his face, his arms flopped to the floor, his head hit with a sickening crack, the facial expressions changing slightly when it impacted the floor. He rolled a bit, but then stopped moving. Lifeless.

Seeing his first friend die brought back all of the greatest memories they had together, Harry remembered opening his first chocolate frog together, all of Ron's funniest jokes sprang to his mind and Harry was nearly about to start laughing, Harry was also reminded of Dobby when he thought back to Ron admiring his sneakers. All of the reminiscing ended when he saw Ron's body on the ground, even if he had hurt Hermione, he never got to ask him why.

Harry, enraged by the evilness, dashed forward and put his hands on Quirrell's throat. He had been strangling him for a second before he realised that his mother's protection did not seem to be working… he broke off from Quirrel and took out his wand, he knew that they would lose a duel when Quirrell was not using Voldemort's wand; he decided to end it as quickly as he could, the killing curse was on his lips when a faint voice spoke from behind him.

"Avada-Kedavra" Hermione spoke softly, a flash of green light illuminated the room, this time it was Quirrell who fell to the floor. The Professor crumpled, the hand that held the stone let it roll across the floor. The room was quiet now, the only sound was that of Hermione pocketing her second wand so that there was now no evidence of her using the curse.

Hermione glanced at Harry "Don't look at me like that Harry, I just couldn't be bothered seeing the monster who killed you. If that turban came off I think we'd all be sick."

"Hermione you know that's not okay, I don't want any blood on your hands."

"Don't kid me Harry, I know you were about to try the exact same curse that I was."

"Fine. Lets just clean this up."

They walked around to all of the unconscious students and made sure they were okay, thankfully none were awake or they would have had to obliviate the last spell from their mind.

Harry was walking past The Mirror of Erised when he decided to take a peek. He was surprised to see himself having dinner with Hermione alone. He smiled to think of the comparisons Hermione would get to his mother once more people knew that they were romantically involved.

"You know what Hermione? Lets just go back to the hall, Dinners ready and I'm starving. We've done what we could, they're all in stasis, I have my cloak, we can easily sneak out of here."

"I think I'd like that", Hermione was the one to pass the mirror now and she saw herself with Harry in the Library, funny she thought and giggled to herself a bit.

"Also… ummm Hermione. I really like you, would you be m-",

"FINALLY" she said, cutting across Harry's question, "I didn't want to be the one to cave in, but Merlin was I close."


End file.
